1970
by MaraudingDisaster
Summary: It's the first year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Remus Lupin and the other marauders. This is the tale of Remus's perspective of his first year and his journey of learning who he is rather than what he thinks he is.
1. Scene One

1970

**Scene One**

Supposedly he was asleep. He was supposed to be anyway. Or rather, that's what his parents thought. He was in his bed, with the covers up to his chin. His hands wrestled with the worn quilt that his mother's mother made years ago, which somehow landed in his room on top of his bed.

Remus squirmed as he turned on lie on his left side, turning his back to the closed door that was supposed to separate him from his parents' conversation. He went over the checklist in his mind again; his clothes were packed in his trunk, along with his books and other assorted knick-knacks from his childhood that were deemed too important to be left at closed his eyes tight, too tight to ever fall asleep, but he tried to block out the words that danced from his parents' hushed mouths through the gap under his dark green painted door.

"I can't believe it," he heard his mother whisper again. He could picture the scene quite vividly in his mind. Tall bookshelves created an enclave where actual walls didn't; the fireplace was surely on even though it had not yet begun to get cold. That was something his mother insisted on: the fireplace on regardless of the time of the day or the season. His father made fun of her, but he did it with the small smile and a wink that let Remus know he wasn't serious. His mother argued that it made any atmosphere better and created warmth in the soul that anyone could appreciate.

No other lights would be on in the reading room, Remus pictured vividly, hoping that it would aid him in getting himself to sleep. And even though that there were three armchairs squished around the fire and in front of the bookshelves, his mother would either be sitting on the arm of the chair his father sat on or on his lap. He tried not to think about the latter, but couldn't rule out the plausible possibility. He tried not to look at them when he was in there with them, he tried to distract himself or focus on whatever book he had, but he couldn't help it sometimes. It was in these quiet moments that Remus sometimes felt he saw his real parents and not what they became in front of other people, himself included.

Sometimes his father would hold his book with one hand and pretend that his wife wasn't sitting on his armchair. Remus still hadn't figured out why his father would pretend. How could anyone possibly read when someone was sitting on their lap? Sure he knew his father could concentrate on his work but no one could possibly concentrate that hard for that of a long time with someone sitting on their laps. Realistically it had to get uncomfortable after awhile. With one hand occupied holding a book that would no longer have its pages flipped, his father's other hand would pet his mother's light brown hair just like Remus would pet his cat.

Other times his father wouldn't pretend to read and just put the book down on the floor or on the other arm chair. Sometimes they were silent and only stared at the fire together and other times they would whisper. It didn't matter what they conversed about, the weather or about their jobs; they would always whisper. That's another thing Remus didn't understand. Why could they talk normally like they usually did instead of resorting to coveted whispering? Either way in each scenario, Remus would leave after awhile, unable to think of anything except watching his parents as he tried to work.

Remus turned to lie on his stomach and ducked his head underneath the quilt even though he wasn't cold. If his father had taught him a spell to block out their noise he would have tried to cast it. If their subject matter wasn't about him he wouldn't have cared if he could hear his parents talk into the night. With the bits of conversation Remus had head not once had they said his name but he knew it was about him, and it caused him to be even more anxious than he already was. Remus opened his eyes and let his eyes adjust to the darkness so that he could see the outlines of his trunk and other belongings packed in an order beside the door. Satisfied that they were still there, he closed his eyes again.

"I never thought this day would come," he heard his mother say to his father. She had said this numerous times since Remus received his acceptance letter. She said it numerous times even after she and his father went to have a meeting with Dumbledore. The adults had arranged the meeting after the headmaster of Hogwarts visited the Lupin home. And even though Remus had heard her say this phrase multiple times, his mother said it like it was the first time: as a whisper or a sigh, sometimes attached with a quick smile.

"I know, darling," his father murmured, surely petting her hair. "I dared not try to raise my hopes before his letter came. I made myself believe that he would not be able to go to any school and would be resigned to be home-schooled for his magical education." Out of his two parents Remus favoured his father's voice more. It was warm and deep and made him feel safe. The northern burr of a Scotsman rang though each of his syllables and made Remus convinced that all men should talk like his father. His mother's voice, while not shrill like some of the older ladies Remus had met, it didn't carry the same reassurance Remus had grown to expect from his father's cadence.

"Just think of all of the possibilities that will be opened for him because of this," his mother said in the same exhaled manner.

His father didn't speak for a moment; he was prone to do this. During these times when his father thought, and he did this often, his eyes narrowed together ever so slightly and was only noticed by Remus if he was looking hard for the change of facial expression. "Things unimagined," his father finally said.

His mother stayed silent and Remus began to think that they would go to bed. "We could try again."

"We've talked about this before Shannon," he said in a tone different than before. Remus's father said it in the same tone whenever the Ministry of Magic of the United Kingdom passed restricted decrees for 'special' citizens: his voice bathed in resignation of not being able to change any law that affected people curse with lycanthropy, vampirism, or whatever.

"Remus will be away during the school months now," this was the first time his mother had mentioned his name since their discussion began.

"Nothing is for certain," his father said in the same sad voice.

"What are you saying, John? That he won't be accepted by his peers or that his condition will be discovered?"

"I don't think that at all," he said in response to the first part of his wife's words. "But we never know what will happen."

"Why can't you believe that life will be better for us, for Remus now?"

"I do believe that. I believe that this is a step in the right direction for him. It's just hard for me to believe that the world will change in that short amount of time. I have faith in him. If nothing else I have faith in Remus to be the best he can be. But I cannot have that faith in other people."

His parents relapsed into a silence that grew into a murmuring of lost words that Remus couldn't make out. He flipped to his side again and thought about all that he had heard. He knew he wasn't supposed to be going to a school with other children, more importantly children that were normal and without painful 'conditions' (as his parents delicately referred to his monthly transformations). The bit about the new opportunities was old to Remus. That is what his parents had been telling him since the summer. And while he was appreciative, he was tired of hearing it whenever his parents got emotional about his leaving. He had caught on quickly whenever they were about to begin the speech: the eyes would grow soft and they would look strangely at him. Sometimes they would smile, and sometimes Remus felt like they weren't smiling at him, but rather themselves. But he didn't understand what his mother wanted to try again. But he knew it was somehow related to him being gone for nine months at school.

"I love you," his father said, his voice rising so that Remus could hear it again. Either his mother didn't reply or she still spoke at a volume where Remus couldn't hear it. "I'm going to check on Remus then I will join you." He heard his mother agree to this and became grateful that his back was to his door and tried to arrange his face so that he appeared to be sleeping like he should have been hours ago. He heard his door creak open and he could imagine the light spilling in from the reading room into his room.

"I never thought we would see this night come," his mother whispered from the doorway. "I didn't expect him to be leaving so soon, he's still so young," she sighed.

"He is the same age as when we left for school," his father whispered warmly. "But it doesn't seem like it. I remember feeling so old when I received my letter. Now I understand how young I really was." Remus heard his mother shuffle and kiss his father. "I'll be soon," he whispered to her before crossing the doorframe. The floorboards creaked as he paused to look at Remus's packed belongings. The creaking got louder as his father creeped closer to Remus's bed. Remus tried to keep his breathing slow and deep as his father took one of his large hands and brushed Remus's forehead, brushing his bangs from his forehead. He heard his father breath deeply before he leaned down to kiss his forehead. Remus tried not to laugh as his father's stubble tickled his skin. "Good night, Remus," his father whispered before lifting his face from Remus's and walking away.

Quickly Remus flipped to his back and leaned forward, "Dad?" he whispered quietly. He saw the outline of his father stop and turn around.

"Remus," his name rolled over his father's tongue in a way that it never did when his mother said his name. "You should be sleeping," he whispered as he sat on the edge of Remus's bed. "You've got quite the big day tomorrow," he wrapped his right arm over Remus's back, "though I suppose that's why you aren't asleep." Remus smiled from his father's correct assumption. "Is anything the matter? Or can you just not sleep?"

"I can't stop thinking," Remus admitted as he leaned into his father's body.

"Understandable for any boy in your situation," his father used his other hand to brush his son's hair into place. Remus tensed slightly from his words but his father didn't acknowledge it. "I remember before I left for Hogwarts," he continued as Remus relaxed against him, "my mother had to threaten to slip me a sleeping potion because I was so excited." Remus noted this fact in his mind, indexing it under the little known information about his paternal grandparents. Remus's father did not willingly speak about his mother and father often and Remus had never been in a room with either one of them alone for more than a handful of minutes. Ever since the death of Remus's paternal grandfather years ago, that amount had dwindled from minutes to seconds.

"Did you have to take it?" Remus asked slowly, tucking the top of his head under his father's chin.

His father laughed at the memory, "No, I don't believe so. But I am positive that I almost came close to having been forced to swallow a few drops of it."

Remus played with the sheet under the quilt for a moment. "It's just," he paused, "I've never been away from here."

"Ah," his father nodded his head, "are you frightened from that thought?"

Remus thought before answering; yes, he was scared of that, but that was nothing compared to the idea of transforming in a new place entirely completely away from his parents. "It's okay to be frightened. It is probably expected, I know I was and so was your mother before she left home. But would you like to know something?" Remus nodded his head against his father's chin, "I'm not frightened for you. And would you like to know why?" Again Remus nodded into his father's form. "I am not scared for you," he whispered, "because I know that you will be just fine along with everyone else. Tomorrow by this time you will belong to a house of Hogwarts and thus belong to a legacy that spans centuries. No one will know you, and while that may seem daunting, that opportunity gives you a chance to start over in a way that was hard to do before." Remus closed his eyes as his father stroked his brunette hair, breathing in his father's familiar scent. "In fact, I am excited for you. This is the start to your next seven years, and even if that sounds like a long time for you, it goes by much quicker than what you would imagine." He continued to stroke Remus's hair for a short time longer, "do you think you can sleep now?"

Remus fluttered his eyes open and nodded, his head suddenly too heavy to think of words to speak. Remus's father gently took hold of Remus and set him back down in his bed, bringing the sheet and worn quilt up to his chin, just the way Remus preferred. He leaned down once more and kissed Remus on the forehead, whispering an "I love you," instead of a good night. His father stood up and looked down at Remus, catching his son's gaze, before bringing the covers closer to Remus's body. With that Remus allowed his eyes to fall as the dark coloured floorboards creaked giving the sign of his father's departure.


	2. Scene Two

**1970**

**Scene Two**

"Remus, darling," his mother cooed early the next morning, brushing the hair on top of his head. Remus opened his eyes slowly, blinking until the blurry object leaning over his face became his mother.

"What time is it?" he mumbled. "What time is it?" he asked again, pushing himself into a sitting position as he realised what day it was.

His mother laughed lightly, "It is only seven, ducky, but get out of bed. We've made you a breakfast before your long journey today." He nodded and used the bottom of one of his fists to wipe away the sleep from his eyes. His mother patted the bundle under the covers that was his legs before crossing the narrow span of his room and closing the door after her departure. Remus threw off his grandmother's quilt and unknotted his legs from the sheets as he hurried to get out of bed. One foot was still caught in the mess and he fell with a dull thud on the floor before scooping himself up. His bare toes danced across the floor as he went to his packed belongings to see that everything was still where it was supposed to be. He creaked open his trunk that was magically enchanted to be bigger on the inside to find his books wrapped together in brown paper tied with a black ribbon (his mother's choice) and his school cloaks and an assortment of his own, well-loved clothing.

Remus had a dilemma and he didn't know what to do of it. If he got dressed now should he dress in his usual casual get-up or as to what he wanted to wear when he arrived at Hogwarts?

His pulse quickened. Today, in a matter of hours, he would be away from his mother and father and his childhood home. The once abstract thought was becoming more concrete as he looked at his mother's hand-made school uniform cloaks, the used pewter cauldron beside his trunk, and knowing his wand was on his near empty chest of drawers.

The mix of nerves and excitement overwhelmed him so he decided against changing as he quickly clanged the trunk closed and launched from his doorway and down the rug that padded the corridor from the bedrooms to the spiral staircase.

"Good morning, Remus," his father greeted calmly. In the rare instances that Remus's father was home late enough for Remus to see him in the mornings he would usually be seen with the latest Daily Prophet in or near his hand. But this morning he sat dressed out of his robes and only wore a striped jumper and brown trousers. Remus's mother stood from her chair stationed next to her husband's chair at the small, round café looking wooden table to hug Remus close to her chest and kiss the top of his head.

"Good morning. Now we are not anywhere short of time so don't feel like you have to rush through eating." Remus's mother let go of him and walked with him to the table that was unusually laden with a full breakfast that included great amounts of toast, eggs, and bacon and sausages. Remus glanced at his father who sat across from him and smiled back at his father's nod as his mother continued to talk about the day's agenda. "Then I shall help you pack the rest of the things for you to take and your father will make himself busy. The train leaves at eleven, but your father and I agree in thinking that we should arrive a bit earlier since it is your first time so we can help you find a good carriage close to the conductor and you have time to settle in."

Remus looked apprehensively at his empty light yellow plate to the food in front of him. Ordinarily Remus didn't eat a big breakfast or any food in the morning, but on the occasions that he did a piece of cheese on toast would suffice until lunch. His family knew this and normally wouldn't go this much out of their way to devise such a meal unless in celebration of Christmas morning. This added to the concretion of Remus actually going to his parents' boarding school. "Do you have any questions or concerns?" his father asked, breaking him from his thoughts. His mother buttered a piece of toast for him and began to serve him portions of the assortment of breakfast foods. Remus looked at his father and shook his head no. The elder man smiled a small smile and scanned the Daily Prophet. "The weather today is expected to be fair," he commented.

"May you read me my horoscope?" voiced Remus. His father looked up and made a show of scowling playfully before consenting. This had been a joke between his father and him since Remus had learnt to read. When Remus was young he had come across his father's paper and tried to read it just as he did every morning. Randomly opening a page, the six year old came first upon the horoscopes written daily by supposed Seers of Divination and found his birth date in his sign's mass daily prediction. Most of the time the horoscopes were vague and positive, but the Pisces prediction that day was about tension and anxiety at work. Only able to understand parts of it, Remus thought it was about him personally and the upcoming full moon. He instantly became hysterical because he thought the paper had announced to everyone about him being a werewolf.

His father cleared his throat as his mother urged him to eat something, anything before the long train ride. "The official horoscope reading, brought to you personally by actual Seers," his father said in an official, authoritative voice, "Pisces for the first of September in the year 1970: Remus John Lupin is scheduled to go off to Hogwarts to make his mother and father proud. Remus should also eat something since his mother worked very hard this morning to make everything perfect—which it is," his father directed towards her.

"Thank you, John," she said over her mug of tea. Remus stared at his plate of fool, his blood still buzzing from the excitement and building nerves. His hands wiped his sleeping pants before he made himself eat the piece of toast his mother put on his plate. Even though his stomach said no, Remus acknowledged that he should eat now like his mother said before the near day-long train ride where he wouldn't be able to eat.

Usually when Remus's family ate together the table was quiet. It was the comfortable kind of quiet, which Remus preferred. If his parents did speak it was usually with each other about something concerning their lives or work and was deemed light enough in content to be talked about in front of Remus. And while the table this morning was quiet, it felt different to Remus. Maybe it was only because he was nervous and slightly scared for what was going to happen in a few hours or maybe it was in part of his parent's attempts to make it seem less nervous and stressful than it was supposed to be. Remus forced himself to eat most of his plate while his father read the paper and his mother wrote a letter to her mother.

"Dress in your usual robes, okay, duck?" his mother called to him when he got up to leave. "An older student will come to your compartment to tell you when to change into your school robes."

Remus stopped and turned back to face his mother at the counter, "how do you know?"

His father who leaning on counter next to his wife, helping her dry the dishes the Muggle way, replied "because I remember from my year that all the Muggle-born students dressed prematurely in their uniform cloaks instead of their usual Muggle wear and they cast themselves apart even before starting school." Remus pursed his lips and nodded before climbing the stairs to his room. He understood what his father meant: go out of your way to be the same as the majority, to be like other children from wizarding households.

At least his previous dilemma was solved. Remus threw off his sleeping clothes and folded them on his bed after dressing himself in his everyday clothes he got from the packed trunk. He was buttoning his robe when his mother knocked on the door. She peaked her head in and smiled, holding two mugs of tea.

"You wanted the quilt to go with you, yes?" Remus nodded while he sipped from the glass his mother gave him. She began to fold the worn quilt as Remus checked for his wand yet again in the special hidden wand pocket inside his robes. On the required items list in his acceptance letter to Hogwarts it had a wand listed, but Remus had already possessed one since March. His family had all made a trip to Ollivanders Wand Shop on his birthday last year. His parents had told him of horror stories of it having to take hours for some people to find the correct wand, but Remus was spared that and only took a little more than half an hour to find his. The old proprietor himself was strange in a humorous way, Remus still remembered. The man remembered each of his parent's wands exactly as if he had given them to them both not thirty years ago but mere hours ago.

Remus was proud of his Applewood wand with its unicorn hair, sharing the same core as his mother. His father was the only one in the family with a wand made with dragon. Before the acceptance letter his father and mother and decided that their only option was to home-school Remus in the magical arts and were in the process of that when the letter came and disrupted everything. He could do a few charms his father taught him and his mother, being gifted at Herbology, had given him the fundamentals of the subject. Remus had only brewed a few household potions with his mother and father and they hadn't gotten into transfiguration. But before they had begun preparations to home-school Remus both of them had tried to teach Remus easy spells with their own wand whenever he asked them to. Remus was especially surprised when the incantation for wand lighting was in one the later chapters his required spell books, that have been the first spell he mastered with the aid of his father. His parents decided to home-school him in at least the fundamentals of magic while they searched for a group of other home-school students or a programme near there home in the Midlands.

"Remus, do you want to take these pyjamas with you?" His mother asked, but Remus stood stationary by his chest of drawers, staring out of the only window in his room. "Remus," she said a little louder. Remus shook his head slightly and turned his gaze to his mother. "These pyjamas," she held up the clothes he had just taken off, "would you like me to pack them or would you rather them stay here?" Remus shrugged his shoulders but made his way to the clothes and took them from his mother to pack them in his trunk anyway. As he stood straight after placing them on top he turned around to find his mother staring at him. "What's on your mind?" she asked.

Remus shrugged his shoulders and lifted his eyes to his ivory ceiling before looking back at his mother. "Honestly, I don't know. A lot of things, I suppose."

"Would you like to know how I knew you were thinking?" she asked as she put away the folded quilt into the trunk and stood next to Remus. "Your father," she began in response to Remus's nod, "your father looks the same way whenever he is lost in thought. You look just like him."

Remus resisted the urge to smile in front of his mother, "he says I look more like you." Which, physically, was an obvious statement. Remus and his mother shared a similar light brown hair while his father sported a darker shade that was being slowly being invaded by fine grey hairs at the age of thirty eight. Remus also had a rounder face that appeared similar to his mother's.

He only gathered his blue eye colour and what his mother called a 'strong' nose from his father. He didn't know how he felt about being resembled more to his mother rather than his father, but he didn't figure it to be a problem yet.

"That is because your father only looks at himself briefly in the mirror once in the morning. I look at him much more than that to know that you look and act just like him," she tapped the end of his nose lightly and she laughed at how he scrunched up his nose in reaction. She turned from him to look at his room.

It was a narrow rectangle room with forest green paint on all of the walls. His bed was positioned on the back right corner, opposite was his desk and in the middle of that space was a window that looked into the back garden behind the house. On the far end of the room where he and his mother stood was his door, his dresser drawer and his trunk and cauldron.

"Is there anything else you can imagine packing? If you change your mind, write to us and we will send anything you want. The reverse is true, also. If you find you wishing to send anything back you only have to owl us."

Remus looked at the bookshelves that his father installed over his bed and desk. He chose to take only a few of the fictional books and one hardback reference book on the lycanthropy condition. "No, I think I have packed everything I'll need." His door creaked open the family cat, Angus strutted in. The cat had been in the family since his parents' marriage and was two years older than Remus.

Remus's mother saw him staring at the cat who was had jumped onto the window ledge, "I wish Angus was young enough for you to take him with you. I know how fond you two are of each other."

"I couldn't take him if I wanted," Remus walked over and picked up the cat, holding him to his chest and breathing in the outdoor scent in the cat's fur. "This is his home, he would hate Hogwarts and all of the stairs and people." He stroked the cat's light black ears and set him back down on the window ledge. The cat's tail twitched at his annoyance of not being pampered any longer. Remus responded by stroking the cat's matching black back hair.

"Is everything all right in here?" Remus's father knocked on the door and stepped through the threshold, "it looks like everything is packed. Should I begin to take it downstairs?"

"What's the time?" his mother asked, walking close to her husband to wrap her right arm around his waist.

"I can't recall," he replied, "Remus, do you know the current time?"

Remus looked at strangely his parents, standing in a unified formation. "You know I haven't got a watch."

"Oh, that's right. You don't have a watch," his father slowly rolled off the words slowly, the act made his Scottish accent even more pronounced. "But, I thought you did have one in your possession." His father raised his voice at the end of the sentence to make it seem like he was questioning him.

"What are you talking about?" he looked back and forth between his mother and father.

"Look in," his father paused, fluttering his eyes shut for a moment, "the far right corner of your trunk." Remus understood what his father was trying to say and hurried to the trunk and opened it. He pushed aside the recently placed quilt and pulled out a small brown box that hadn't been there before. Still kneeling on the ground Remus turned to his parents before opening it.

"It's all right, go ahead and open it," his mother urged, wrapping her arm tighter around Remus's father. Remus looked down at the watch box in his hands. The brown fabric had been worn down around the edges but he didn't care; he unlatched the tiny lock and creaked open the container. Inside was a silver rimmed watch frame attached to a brown leather wristband.

"Is this—" Remus did not dare take out the watch but rather rotated the box around in his hands. He rarely received such fine gifts and he didn't know if he had ever received anything silver in his entire life.

"My father gave that to me," Remus's father unwrapped himself from his wife and crouched down in front of Remus. He gently took the box from Remus's hands and took out the watch. "I updated the water-proof incantation so you need not worry about that, and I have also added a charm. Whenever you are curious about the moon's phases all you have to do is this," Remus's father brought out his wand and motioned for Remus to do the same. "Tap the face of the watch and say,' Artemis." He demonstrated and the numbers from the watch's face washed away from the black colour that invaded the face and a waning moon formed to the right of where the number twelve was originally on the watch just moments before. "The full moon will appear right on where the twelve numeral was," his father explained.

"I know you always remember when it is, but I know how much you like to see it in your calendars and books so I thought this could be a nice reassurance that can always be with you." Remus's father put away his wand, "Now give me your wrist." Remus held out his left wrist and let his father secure the strap around his skin, "to make it go back to the time, merely say 'Nox'-just as in the Lumos incantation." Even with Remus's father's wand hidden away, the face of the watch returned to its original state."To set the alarm all you have to do is dial on the back of the watch. You mother has taken the liberty to set it at seven thirty for you, but that can be easily changed depending on what you find works best for you."

Remus's mother sat beside his father, "Do you like it?"

Remus opened his mouth to speak but wasn't sure how to convey his gratefulness. "Yes, I like it. I can't believe it, thank you," he looked to his mother and father and the watch on his arm that suddenly felt heavy. His fingers outlined the face of the watch and felt proud that his father gave him the watch his father gave him.

His mother tapped the watch and gently whispered that it was time to go. Remus nodded slowly, suddenly not wanting to get up from his floor even though his knees were already beginning to hurt and his stomach was in tangles and suddenly his arms were tingling. Suddenly Remus realised he was scared and he didn't know what to do with that emotion. His mother helped him up and his father closed and locked the trunk, silently vanishing the trunk and cauldron away. Remus's mother helped him stand and Remus turned to look at his room as his father began to walk down the hallway to the stairs.

He looked at the forest green walls that had been painted that had been the same colour for as long as he could remember and looked at the drawings and notes he had tacked on the wall above his desk. Angus still sat facing the outdoors and Remus walked over to pick him up, throwing the black and white cat over his shoulder before following his mother out of the door. Remus stroked the cat to the beat of his racing heart. In the living room in front of the fireplace stood his father with an outer robe now on. Remus inhaled deeply and kissed Angus on the head before placing him on the floor.

"I'm going to apparate to King's Cross station with your luggage. I'm going to make it smaller so it will be easier to travel with. You're going to side-apparate with your mother—do you understand?" Remus nodded. "Are you ready?" Remus shrugged his shoulders, "That's all right. We'll go on the count of three, okay?" Remus's mother wrapped her arms around Remus's shoulders from behind and brought him close to her chest. "One," Remus's father shrunk the luggage and placed it in an inside pocket in his robes. "Two," Remus felt her mother tighten her grip around him as he closed his eyes shut. "Three." Remus felt the nauseating sensation of apparition overcome his stomach and he clenched his eyes closer together. As soon as it had begun, the sensation stopped and the sound of traffic and hundreds of people's conversation quickly numbed Remus's ears.

"We're here," his mother whispered to him and Remus was glad that she hadn't removed her arms around him yet as he opened his eyes.


	3. Scene Three

**Scene Three**

From the safety and quiet from his house that he had always been accustomed to, Remus now found himself in the corner of the most famous train station in London. Remus's father walked through the crowds of more Muggles Remus had ever seen and came back in a few moments later with a carriage and his luggage back in its original size. He had taken his robe off and appeared more like the Muggles that surrounded them. From a nod from his father Remus followed suit and placed his own dark grey fabric over his fathers, covering the cauldron.

His nervousness that enveloped his body moments ago was forgotten as he looked around at the settings he was in no way expecting. When his parents had told him about Platform Nine and Three-Quarters they had only spoken fondly of a scarlet train surrounded with other wizards and witches, they had spoken of the magical brick wall he had to walk into but they had not spoken of the chaos that currently surrounded him. Remus's mother took his hand as they followed the path Remus's father made walking in front of them.

Remus looked down at the pale brown brick of the floor, quickly watching his dark brown leather shoes as they followed his father's step—Remus trying hard to match his father's long stride. He tried not to look at the unknown faces of the people surrounding them that seemed like they knew where they were going. He envied the Muggles at that moment, wishing he could be calm about going somewhere; despite the people all around his family were rushing, they seemed to know exactly where they were supposed to going. His mother gripped his hand, letting him know that she was right beside him. His father slowed his pace as they neared the seventh and eighth train stations, "Remus, would you like to take control of the trolley when you enter?" They stopped in front of the matching pale brick brown wall between the two stations.

"I suppose so, yes, maybe," he rattled off quickly, his nerves approaching maximum level again.

"Do you remember how to do it?" His mother whispered, still holding onto his hand. "All you must do it take control of the carriage and walk through the wall," Remus knew all of this but still listened intently anyway. "If you are a bit scared you can go to a run, or your father and I can go with you."

"I-" Remus thought about the different options, "I think I want to try it alone." He knew he should do it alone, even though he was scared. In a matter of hours he would be leaving his parents and would have to do things on his own. This was the perfect time as any to start the habit.

"All right, we will right after you. Don't mind about the other people. Don't feel as if you have to worry about being inconspicuous," his mother added, placing one of her hands on his back while Remus inhaled deeply.

"When you become more comfortable with it you can start thinking about being evasive around the Muggles," his father said, "but today your main concern should just be to enter the platform. It is smoother than floo powder and apparition, and you won't feel it." Remus lined his trolley with the wall between the platforms counting in his head, stilling holding onto that one breath. "Are you ready?" his father asked. "When you are, just go. Don't think about it and just go, all right?"

Remus nodded his head. One, he thought, looking about to see if anyone would cross his projected path. Two, he closed his eyes and imagined his parents standing on either side of him, focusing on where his mother's hand had been. He gripped the plastic handle of the trolley and repeatedly alternated putting his weight on each foot. Three, he closed his eyes harder and began to shorten the twelve-foot distance between the him and the wall. With each step he increased his speed until he was sure he was running and briefly considered what he must look like to a passing Muggle. All of a sudden he couldn't hear the bustling mass of people at King's Cross and heard a different, muted white noise. He stopped rather quickly and nearly fell from the momentum coming off from the sprint. He was no longer standing inside King's Cross but rather an outdoor train platform with a scarlet red engine stationary on a track, just as his parents had described. A few birds littered the aisle, but it seemed deserted except for him and the swinging sign that read "Hogwarts Expressed" underneath the plaque that listed the station's number. Attached to the bottom of the sign was the time of departure.

He turned around just in time to see his mother and father stroll in with their arms intertwined with each other. "Welcome to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters," his father said with a growing smile.

"Lovely," his mother said more to herself as she looked around the empty station. "We have plenty of time for us to load you into a compartment and say our good-byes." Remus's father grabbed his son's luggage and began walking to the train. "Now, dear, the Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl are stationed in the front of the train so if you have any troubles, big or small, just begin walking to the front to find them. They all have badges and are there to help you. If you can't find anyone, talk with the conductor. All right?" Remus nodded and his mother smiled. Remus's father opened a door on the first coach and walked in. Remus followed his father's footsteps to find himself in a narrow corridor with the compartments closed off with dark brown doors to his left and windows showing the outside scene of the platform to his right.

"Do you have any preference?" His father asked from in front of him.

"No, I don't think so," Remus replied quietly; scared of being on the train that would separate himself and his soon to be old life.

His father picked the third compartment down from where they entered. He held open the door with his foot and allowed Remus and his mother to walk in first. The compartment had two red rows of seats that faced each other and luggage racks high over the seats. Between the seats was a large window and above the seats were lights that filled the compartment with a yellow-tinged tint. Remus's father lifted his cauldron up to the racks but left the trunk on the ground, "For you to get your school robes," he explained. He himself picked up and brushed off his faded black robe and put it back on now that he was away from the Muggles. Remus, not knowing what else to do as his family stood in the compartment, did the same. Remus's mother closed the compartment door and walked over to Remus.

"Now I know you must be scared, but remember of all of the precautions that have been installed for you, all right?" Remus nodded, forming his hands into fists and he picked the skin from around his fingernails with his index finger due to nerves that he had come to associate with whenever his lycanthropy was brought up. "The Whomping Willow was planted over the summer under the guise of study for high levelled Herbology students, but Madam Pompfrey will lead you there for your monthly transformations. Madam Pompfrey is also stocked and prepared to treat you before and after your transformation with potions that we didn't have at home." Remus has been told a version of this speech dozens of times, the first being from the mouth of the kind Headmaster Dumbledore. He looked down at the carpeted floor, wishing for once that his 'condition' could not be mentioned. Especially when he was the only one infected by the curse who held the burden of keeping it a secret to protect the life he knew. Remus couldn't imagine a life where he wasn't burdened by the disease, and he hated that his mother felt like she had to constantly remind him of keeping it secret.

Remus's father moved closer to him, "Remember, too, that none of your teachers will know about your condition—only your head of house due to set up precautions that may need to be added later on. When you enter this school year, no one will know you, do you understand? You have been given a wonderful opportunity to make the impression that you want to be made on your present life, not your past." Remus nodded at this, having been relieved upon learning early in the summer that only one of his teachers would know about his monthly absences. "Your upcoming professors will only know that you have been allowed to have absences each month that have been approved by Headmaster Dumbledore."

"Also be sure to share any concerns as well as accomplishment through letters. If something arises and you are apprehensive to talk to your professors about it we can help you. Headmaster Dumbledore has also set up a direct floo connection between his office and our home that you are free to use. Do you still remember the password to Professor Dumbledore's office?"

"Yes," Remus said quietly, thinking of the muggle candy name. "I wrote it down, even."

"Excellent, Remus," she replied. She paused and looked back at his father, "I know you know this, but I must say again that you mustn't, under any circumstances, tell anyone or let anyone know of your condition. Did you pack the parchment that listed off excuses for your absences?" Remus nodded, with a minute scowl burrow in-between his brows. He knew all of this; he wasn't thick enough to let anyone know of his monthly condition. He had seen how it divided his father from his family; he knew the looks of pity and fear that people gave his parents when they discovered what their son was. "If you need to think of any more excuses, write to us and we will send them post-haste. Also, be sure not to appear too interested in the lycanthropy subject in or outside of class, all right? You don't need anyone seeing that and possibly asking questions. Discretion will make your life easier," Remus's mind flashed a vivid picture of where he had hidden his book on werewolves.

His mother sighed and finally smiled down at Remus, "Now know that whichever house you will be sorted into tonight will make your father and I so proud. We are already so very proud by your decision to come here despite your fears and concerns. I know without a doubt in my mind that if you went into my old house, Hufflepuff would be honoured to have you."

"And I know that you would be able to get along with the Ravenclaws if you were to be sorted there," his father spoke fondly of his own house. He father patted his left inside breast pocket in his robe, pulling out two objects from it. He handed Remus the first, "I only ask that you read this tonight after you are sorted." Remus looked down at the thick parchment envelope in his hand that was unaddressed but sealed with his father's favourite blue wax. Remus felt the hard wax with a finger before nodding and safely putting the letter away in a pocket in his robes. "And this is to be opened for whenever you feel the need to," his father said with a smile, handing Remus a small package of chocolate. "I know meeting new people can be hard, but if you offered to share this it might be easier."

"Your father with all of his clever thinking," his mother remarked.

Remus also put the package in a pocket, not knowing what to say. "Thank you" seemed too simple and not good enough to express the appreciation Remus felt. Not only for his new watch, the letter his father had written beforehand, or for the way his father knew how hard it was for Remus to reach out to people. He wasn't ready to say good-bye nor wanted to. He looked to the outside through the window and watched the bright green grass sway back and forth from a soft wind against the harsh horizon line where the blue sky met the green. Outside of their closed door they heard sounds of other families carry luggage on the train; Remus turned to look at his parents.

He seemed so very small when he compared himself to them, especially with his father's height that made him seem too big to be in the compartment. He tried to imagine his father being on this train in his seventh year, his mother being in her fifth at that same time, then his sixth year, all the way to his first year where he couldn't imagine his father being a ten year old. How did his father bear it? The uncertainties of boarding a train to go to someplace everyone talked about but where he had never been before? How did his mother do it, being a Muggleborn and having had no previous knowledge of the legendary school? He was in the middle of the spectrum—having heard about the school since his birth but never having it in his reach as his father. But at the same time not knowing much about the institution, much like his mother because no one felt comfortable about talking about Hogwarts in detail around Remus on account everyone believed he would never be able to go. He wondered about the family that sounded as if they were moving in someone a few compartments down and wondered if the student was a first-year like him.

Remus's mother saw his stare and briskly walked to him to crush him into a hug. "I shall miss you so much Remus," he knew his mother was telling the truth but he could not help but think of the conversation he overheard last night about what his parents could do when he wasn't around as much anymore. He felt guilty for eavesdropping and relaxed his stance, wrapping his arms around his mother in an act of forgiveness even though his parents didn't know of his deed.

"I miss you, too," he mumbled into the fabric of his mother's sleeve. He meant to say that he would miss her, but he didn't try to fix his slip of mouth. He felt his father's presence come closer and soon felt his father's arms envelope the two.

"I think it would be best if we chose not to drag this out," his father said as he stepped back a minute later. "We won't leave the platform until after the train has left, but you can use this time to settle in, all right?"

"I am certain that you shall try to do your best and make us even more proud than you have made us," his mother reassured him after she kissed his cheek.

"But try not to only focus on your school work, I know it will be easy to hide yourself away with books, but I urge you to try and connect with your classmates." His father touched the top of Remus's head lightly, petting his hair before sighing. "I love you, Remus."

"I love you, too. Both of you," he said, changing his gaze from one parent to the other.

His mother hugged him again and whispered into his ear, "I know you will probably like it there, being around children your own age and learning, but if you don't like it, don't be afraid to let us know. We want you to do well, but if it doesn't work out, there is no shame in leaving." Remus nodded his acknowledgement against her cheek, releasing her from his grasp. He followed his parents to the compartment door and watched his mother follow his father down the corridor and out of the train onto the platform that was more populated than before. He looked around and saw a few other children boarding the train far away from him on the carriage. Remus edged closer to the window and he watched his parents interlock arms before walking out of his sight. With the presence of other people on the train, he didn't risk walking down the corridor to see more of his parents. Instead he turned around on his heel and confined himself to his compartment.

He dared not to sit down because he knew he would only get back up again. He paced around the small compartment, feeling alone for the first time that morning. He rattled the watch against his wrist and checked for his wand in his robes. He fixed his fringe against his face with help from a small rectangular mirror fixed on a section of the compartment wall next to the seats. He walked nervously from each side of the compartment because he did not know what else to do with all of his thoughts going around in his mind—he didn't even know where to begin in thinking about them. He felt his father's letter inside a pocket and tried to calm down, forcing himself to sit.

Yes, he was nervous. That much was expected, and he knew that. Every first-year that was boarded, boarding, or about to board this train must feel some sort of nerves or anticipation. But what killed him was that he was unlike every other first-year because of what he was forced to suffer. He thought of the biggest precaution that Dumbledore had installed just for him, a rare animated tree that must not have been easy to plant. He didn't know why the headmaster had made such a big fuss just because of him, yes he was grateful, but why didn't the headmaster just floo him to and from home during his transformations? He and his parents had formed a system that had worked thus far, and now he hated that he would have to transform in a completely new environment. And while he loved his mother, he didn't love the way in which she repeated that if Hogwarts didn't work out then he could go home.

His parents loved Hogwarts, he knew that before he was accepted and had overhead them reminiscing numerous times about their professors and when they started seriously dating in his father's seventh year. His parents would quickly change topics whenever they saw Remus enter, masking the fact that he would never be able to have stories like they had. But after it was safe to openly discuss the school, he had seen how happy his parents had become in learning that they had not given birth to a total beast that had to remain isolated forever. Even if he hated Hogwarts, Remus decided, he would stay for them after all of the damage his condition caused them.

No, he couldn't let his mind become entrapped in those thoughts. At least not now when he was on his way to Hogwarts in less than an hour. He could reserve his self-wallowing until when he was alone and settled in his dormitory. Wherever that may be.

He heard more noises coming from outside the corridor as students passed his compartment. It was foolish for him to believe that he could remain alone for long; he realised, and tried to not think about a complete stranger sitting with him for the journey.

He wondered on how he would do in his classes, seeing as he had not learnt the normal studies with other wizard children of reading, writing, history, math and the fundamentals of magical theory, as was custom with wizard children. It was common for wizard families to come together for studies within the magical community for children too young for Hogwarts to learn the basics. Muggleborns were technically only missing the basic history of magic and magical studies before they left for Hogwarts. But, as in the case of Remus's father early schooling, his group had begun to learn a few simple charms. He knew his parents had tried their best to give him a broad learning experience as his mother home-schooled him when he was younger in a weird schedule in-between her part-time job as a sewing assistant to a magical boutique, his father contributing when he wasn't working.

He began to hear the sounds of more families cross onto the Platform and begin to load their children's possessions onto the train. Remus jumped in fright as his door swung open by a tall red-hair girl who wore blue robes. She looked at him and he wondered if she would make him leave.

"You a first-year then?" she asked in a sweeter voice than Remus was expecting.

"Good, then, welcome aboard. The prefects carriage is just down the corridor to the next carriage if you have any problem, all right?" At Remus's nod the girl closed the door as harshly as she opened it and Remus was alone once more. Though the event only lasted a few seconds, he couldn't stop replaying it in his mind. What about him made it so completely obvious that he was a first-year? Were there other things that he didn't know about to alert people of his personal life?

Remus was in the process of retrieving a book from his trunk when his compartment door opened once more. This time it opened much more slowly to reveal a soft, round pale face edging in to peek. The boy seemed startled to find Remus but continued to open it more before asking if he was alone.

The short round boy seemed relieved upon hearing an affirmitive, "Are you a first-year, too?" he asked in an north western Lancashire cadence.

Remus nodded, "Do you need a place to sit?" The boy with the mousy brown hair nodded. Remus tossed his retrieved book to his seat and helped bring in the boy's luggage, wondering where the boy's parents were.

"I'm Remus Lupin," he introduced himself to fill in the awkward energy between the two boys as they sat across from each other.

"Peter Pettigrew," the boy answered as they shook hands. Remus noted his quiet voice and wondered it if was because he was nervous. Remus's own feet dangled from the seat, but because of this boy Peter's short stature, his feet hung inches above Remus's own. Peter stared intently out of the window as he fidgeted in his seat. One of his laces was untied and the end of his cloak was tucked underneath him in his haste to sit down. Even though he felt guilty for thinking it, Remus was glad that this boy seemed just as nervous as him and he appeared to be coming from a wizarding family. The two boys sat quietly across from each other, one sitting still and the other being the perfect opposite. Remus knew he should say something, anything, but no words came to mind. He pictures his parents sitting on the platform and recalled his father's advice on at least trying to connect with people. Remus sucked his breath and willed himself to speak.

"Which-" Peter asked, turning his head from the window to Remus.

"How-" Remus asked at the same time as Peter.

Both boys fell silent once more.

"How are you?" Remus asked once more, successful in his second attempt.

"Fine, thank you," Peter answered with his high voice.

Remus looked at his watch and found that they only had thirty minutes to go before the train's departure and he wondered how his parents were. He debated if he should find them to say a final good-bye to them but decided against it because of his father's reluctance to drag their farewells. Peter once more began to look out the window and played with his hands in his lap, Remus bit his upper lip and hunched over in his seat, wondering what Peter thought of him.

"Which house do you want to get into?" Peter asked, volleyed the conversation back several long minutes later.

Of course Remus had thought about the four prospects and which house he would like to be sorted into the most, he stayed up multiple nights just thinking of the possibilities. While his mother was a Hufflepuff and proud to be so, he could see himself very easily being one also, but his father was a proud Ravenclaw and Remus could imagine being one also. Remus also knew that depending on his answer, Peter would judge him: it showed a lot about a person based on their house preference.

"I don't know," Remus replied honestly. "I expect I'll be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."

Peter nodded his head seriously, reiterating the fact to Remus that houses were a weighty business at Hogwarts. It said a lot about a person as to what house they belonged to, with each one having its stereotypes. Hufflepuffs were generally hard-workers, dedicated, honest, and generally know as being helpful and fair. Ravenclaws were notorious for placing intelligence first and were known to be curious and eccentric learners, and sometimes cocky. Slytherins were known to be resourceful and had been known to come from a lot of the pureblood wizarding families, creating certain togetherness that was lacking in the other houses. Gryffindors, though, were known for trying to be the heroes and sometimes had the stereotype of being bronze instead of brains. While they encompassed the traits of medieval knights, Remus had only heard them to be brave. Bravery, his father had pointed out, is the same as stupidity; the only thing that distinguishes the two is the outcome.

"What about you, Peter? What house would you like to be sorted into?"

"I don't know. My mother was a Hufflepuff, so I might end up there. But I don't know what I am good at. I just hope I'm not too much of a hat-stall—"

At that point the opening of the compartment door interrupted the boys' difficult conversation. A tall blonde-hair boy and a short light brown haired girl stood in the corridor, "May we sit in here?" the boy asked, Remus noticed that they struggled with their luggage.

Remus looked at Peter and sensing no problems with him, Remus said yes and helped the two bring their luggage into the compartment. The girl, he saw, had brought along a tiny grey owl.

"Thanks, mate," the brown haired boy said, extending his hand to Remus. "I'm Andrew McGivern," he introduced himself. "And this is Nicole-?"

"I'm Nicole Haven," she answered with a southern lisp. Remus and Peter gave their introductions and the girl sat next to Remus and the boy next to Peter. The boy was dressed in an ordinary blue cloak and the girl was dressed only in muggle clothing. Remus could not help but wonder if she was a Muggleborn like his mother or had take off her cloak as to not be looked upon by the Muggles at King's Cross.

"Thanks for letting us sit here, mate," Andrew said in a Geordie accent. "Everywhere else we checked were filled with upper years and they all kicked us out."

"Are you first-years as well?" Remus asked.

Andrew nodded proudly, "If I'm not mistaken, were you two talking about the sorting when we knocked?" Peter nodded. "I was just telling Nicole about the houses. She didn't know much about them."

"Oh," Remus nodded slowly as if he knew the plight of being from a non-wizarding family. The train lurched forward nearly sending Remus toppling off the seat but Andrew had caught him before he could fall. Remus nervously looked at his watch, needing the confirmation that it was indeed eleven o'clock, sharp. He pushed the fear and nervousness back down into his throat and tried to regain himself mentally. Outside to his right the fairly flat landscape sped by but was kept composed by the hard blue sky over it. He tried to nonchalantly scoot himself more into the corner of the seat, away from Nicole.

"We were just discussing the Hufflepuff house; both of our mothers were from there," Remus added after a few moments.

"Aye, both of my parents were from there. That's the only house that I want to be sorted in. I was just telling Nicole that after we passed the barrier."

"I was nearly late if Andrew hadn't helped me. I was afraid of going through the brick wall and he heard me talking to my parents 'bout it." Andrew seemed proud to hear this and Remus watched as he puffed out his chest upon hearing Nicole. "Your family is quite nice," she added to him.

"Did the person who met with you not tell you about crossing onto the Platform?" Remus inquired.

"What person?" Andrew and Peter asked almost simultaneously. Peter seemed embarrassed by this and scooted back further into his seat.

"Well, when a Muggleborn—" Remus stopped feeling foolish. He looked to Nicole sitting next to him and apologised, "you would know more than I possibly could," giving her the stage to speak as the scarlet Hogwarts Express shuttled them out of the South of England.

Nicole thanked him before answering Peter and Andrew's question. "Since I was brought up in the muggle world, and knew nothing about all of this," she motioned to the area around them, "until this summer, Hogwarts sent someone to talk to my parents and me to explain everything and that I was a witch. The woman that came to my house was really nice, she was a Muggleborn herself and works in the section of the Ministry that deals with what you call Muggles. She chaperoned us to Diagon Alley and helped us work with the goblins at that huge bank."

"Gringotts," Andrew interrupted.

Nicole nodded at Andrew, "Yeah, that's the one. And yes," she turned in her seat to face Remus, "Ms Lugh told us about the barrier, but I was still afraid to walk through a brick wall! Are you a Muggleborn as well?" She asked him curiously, looking at his cloak.

"No, but my mother is. She told me about how someone came to her home to explain everything to my grandparents and her." Remus picked his fingers again from the direct attention Nicole and the others were giving him. It was one thing for a boy just as nervous as him to be talking to him, quite another for two seemingly confident students to be directing their attentions on him.

"My dad came from Muggles," Peter interjected.

"One of my grand-parents was a Muggleborn," Andrew added proudly. In the sadistic part of Remus's mind he imagined a scene where he would further interject that not only was he a half-blood, but also a half-creature. Remus had never entered such a pointed topic about magical heritage before, but then again, he did have limited experience with conversations with other magical children his age. Whenever he was with his mother's parents they had encouraged him to interact with the other children in the same neighbourhood his mother grew up in. His father, when speaking about his childhood never mentioned telling near strangers about his magical blood, but maybe he had forgotten. Or maybe Remus had his luck and talked with the only group who was interested in sharing their heritage. Or maybe it was just a thing wizards did to introduce themselves, or maybe it was just a first-year thing when no one knew anyone.

Andrew and Nicole regained their conversation about the houses and Remus was left to himself. He did not mind it necessarily, the weird silence that existed between him and Peter before was now extinguished by the murmuring of Andrew and Nicole.

Remus fidgeted in his seat and pulled out the book he sat on after helping Nicole and Andrew into the compartment. He ran his hand over the worn, faded cover he had seen hundreds of times. He had restarted this particular book a few days ago with the intention of finishing it at Hogwarts as a way to ease him in his new home. He liked the idea of finishing something old in a place so completely new to him. Already he had met more people who had treated him kindly than he probably ever did in his life, but he knew this was only because of who they thought he was, and not what he actually was.

He breathed in deeply and glanced briefly at the occupants sitting around him. Though the train was speeding north, Remus remained stationary in his compartment looking at the packed luggage of the other children. So far it had been easy to talk to people, and he wondered if it was out of desperation from everyone going to the same uncharted territory or if it was because people he happened to meet were exceptionally nice. He leaned more toward the former option and leaned closer to the window beside him. Peter had nestled his forehead against the windowpane and looked intently out of the window, Remus wondered what the plump boy was thinking, noting that Peter seemed to look content.

Nicole and Andrew's conversation still filled the compartment to make a warm, inviting atmosphere and Remus knew instinctively from their easy vibes that if he decided to interrupt their conversation to jump in, neither one would have minded. But he didn't feel like doing that, at least not yet, and he thumbed his way to the place in the children's novel that he had read numerous times before to his spot in the beginning where he left off.

Remus nestled himself in his seat and tried to focus his mind exclusively on the story. It was a book aimed at wizarding children and focused on the tale of a young boy going on an adventure to the woods of Whales to retrieve a lost family token that would heal his sick mother. Remus especially liked this book because the boy was alone most of the time, just like him in real life, and to aid him on his journey the boy's mother and given him a map that showed the exact location anyone near the boy's vicinity was. The map even included the names of any intruders so the boy could prepare himself. He was also helped any friends he met along the way with the knowledge from the map, and from this, stories began to be told about the boy of being a Seer and a powerful wizard.

Somewhere in his train of thoughts Remus had stopped actually reading the book. His mother had given him the book a few years ago as a birthday present and he had loved it instantly. But he wondered why exactly. Remus himself knew that he would probably never go on an epic journey alone to dark woods where beasts reigned. Sure, the map that Remus enjoyed helped a lot, but it didn't help the boy defend himself with spells that he could remember from the top of his head. Remus himself only knew a handful of practical charms himself, nothing major and nothing to defend himself with. Maybe this was why he enjoyed it so much, because the boy was so unlike him but still had just enough traits similar to Remus that he could hope to be like the lad in the book.

Remus couldn't expand his thoughts any further because at that moment there was a knock on their door. Remus looked to Nicole and Andrew for what to do but they both stared at him. Remus marked his place in the book and closed it before standing, but as he set the book down in his seat to answer the door, the door opened itself.

"Food trolley," a nice older woman's voiced called in as she walked by the open entrance. The old, plump woman wore light pastel cloaks and had pale light grey hair wrapped up on top of her head. "Would anyone like anything off of the food trolley, dears?" she asked them with a kind smile. Andrew and Nicole stood up from the compartment seats and began to look at the selection for sale. Remus looked at Peter's sleeping form and decided to wake the boy. He prodded his arm lightly, trying to rouse him.

"Peter," he said quietly, but he still did not wake. "Peter," he said firmer and shook his arm. The boy opened his eyes, startled.

"Wha-?"Peter mumbled, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"The food cart is here, it's full of all sorts of different snacks," Andrew called over his shoulder as he pointed out the different candies to Nicole who only knew of the muggle variants.

"Oh," Peter breathed in. He looked up at Remus who still stood above him, "Thanks for waking me up then."

"Don't even think of it," Remus replied as Peter stood up.

"Are you all first-years?" the food witch asked sweetly. "Oh welcome then to the Hogwarts Express," she exclaimed at their affirmative nods. "You all will have a marvellous time at Hogwarts." Remus looked at the varying selections for sale; Fizzing Whizbees, the infamous Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, Canary Creams, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. As Remus stared at everyone line up to buy the wares, Remus flashed to the scene earlier that morning where his father had warned him to go out of his way to fit in. As a result, Remus felt around in his front trouser pocket and took out a few of the small coins to buy a pack of Cauldron Cakes and Pumpkin Pasties.

He didn't feel like eating anything, his mind wasn't on food and he couldn't imagine how the others could be eating as the tea trolley had rolled down to the next compartment. Between Andrew and Nicole, a sampling of everything on the trolley was scattered between the two rows of seats. Peter had appeased his own hunger with liquorice wands and ice-cold pumpkin juice. Remus ignored his own food in favour of watching Andrew teach Nicole about how to properly open the package to the animated chocolate frogs. She looked as if she didn't believe his words when he said the frogs would actually jump. Remus envied her because she was a Muggleborn. All of this, everything he took for granted in his life, was new and exciting for her. Sure, she might have to catch up on theory that had been engrained in Remus's own mind, but that was easy in the grand scheme of it all; no one would remember the few weeks in the beginning of school where everyone was learning or relearning the foundations of magic.

Remus hid a smile as Nicole opened a package and a chocolate frog nearly jumped on her face. Prepared for this, Andrew had stationed himself near the opening and caught the inanimate beast in his hand as they both laughed. Remus chastised himself for being envious of her. At least Remus had grown up with the knowledge of magic and wasn't totally out of his comfort zone like she must be feeling. It was one thing to go to a school he never thought he would be able to go to versus going to a school he had never heard of to learn of things that he didn't think existed.

How funny Muggles were, Remus thought. How close they lived to wizards yet still magic wasn't believed in their society and the people who believed in it were made fools. Remus has been different that other children grown up in wizarding households because every summer he would spend three weeks at his mother's parents house; giving him a chance to live in the Muggle sphere right next to his wizarding one. That was the only set of grandparents that Remus really knew or enjoyed. His paternal grandfather died when he was three and ever since a wolf had bitten him when he was four, a riff was created between Remus's father and grandmother. His grandmother still invited them to the family get-together every Christmas Eve, but Remus felt ostracized from his other older cousins who had already left Hogwarts. Remus hated going over to that house. Between the stares of false acceptance and true pity he remembered fully what he was; a monster, an evil figure in muggle children fiction and wizarding nonfiction. If he only lived with his parents he could have grown up believing that everyone accepted lycanthropy and had no problem with his monthly transformations.

His Muggle grandparents weren't aware of his condition—it was a decision made early on from his parents. His mother's parents were already overwhelmed by trying to accept the wizarding world and that their daughter was married to a wizard. As a unified decision, Remus's parents had decided against telling them what happened seven years ago. Instead they only told them that Remus was sick and had to go to St. Mungo's Infirmary, a place that was difficult for Muggles to access.

Remus hated thinking of it and tried to bring his mind back to the current scene, one o'clock on the Hogwarts Express, two hours into the journey and Remus hadn't felt any of it pass by. He laid aside his Pumpkin Pasties and mostly eaten Cauldron Cakes in favour of his book again, eating as much as his unhungry stomach would allow. He was grateful for the breakfast, otherwise he might have been ravished by the time the trolley had come along. He made a mental note to add that to the first letter he would send to his parents. He should probably also see if they knew of Peter's mother and Andrew's parents who might have been in Hufflepuff the same time as his parents. He thumbed through the pages in his book as he curled in the corner between the window and the seat as everyone else settled into post hunger. Nicole was laughing at something Andrew said and Peter lounged next to Andrew listening in to add a spare comment every now and then.


	4. Scene Four

**Scene Four**

_Author's Note: Thank you, everyone, for your continued support. I don't usually write notes before chapters, but I didn't want to seem ungrateful. I have most of the beginning written out, but so I won't be in the position of having to write chapters right before I publish them, I'm going to pace out the continued release in week increments._

_Thank you again, I really appreciate it more than anyone could ever know. _

Remus jerked himself from his stupor hours later, not knowing how much time had passed. Nicole and Andrew roused themselves from a Muggle card game that Nicole was trying to teach him. Yells could be heard outside in the train's corridor. Everyone in his compartment, except Peter who had fallen asleep again, looked to the door. Nicole and Andrew's conversation fell silent and Remus closed his book as the distant yells continued

"Should we see what's going on?" Remus suggested to Nicole and Andrew, seeing as the screams grew closer. Nichole shrugged her shoulders but Andrew nodded. Remus set his book aside and placed it in his spot as he stood; Andrew followed him to the door. The continuing yells were coming closer as Remus opened the door inward to peek through to see what was the commotion.

Outside two short black haired boys were shooting sparks out of their wands at each other. Remus stepped outside of the compartment so Andrew could see. A boy with black hair that looked like it hadn't been combed once in his life ran past Remus, the boy looked at Remus, wickedly smiling at him as he ran past, hollering as the other boy with long black hair shot red sparks from his wand.

"You can't get me!" the running boy screamed as he snatched open the door to get to the other train's first carriage.

"You bloody scoundrel," the shooter yelled after him, not caring to look at Remus as the previous boy had done. He threw open the door to follow the messy haired boy and Remus slightly jumped as it loudly slammed shut.

"They're not going to make a good first impression," Andrew spoke with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"They aren't being smart," Remus agreed quietly. "That's where all the prefects are stationed, as well as the conductor," he explained to the blonde-haired boy.

"Classes haven't even started and those two idiots are going to get in trouble," Andrew said with a shake of his head. "I wonder how long they kept this up before now. Do you suppose this train is massively long?"

"I wouldn't know," Remus remarked, "there are only five coaches though."

"That may be, but we don't know if the different coaches have been enchanted to appear bigger on the inside to accommodate more seats," Andrew pointed out.

Remus felt a little silly for not thinking of that before. "Do you want to explore it with me? We might even meet more first-years," Andrew smiled widely and bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Sure, yeah, if you want," Andrew barely heard Remus as he quickly stepped back into the compartment to ask Nicole if she wanted to go along. She declined, saying that someone should stay behind to look after their belongings since Peter was asleep. Andrew stepped outside of the compartment and closed it gently. "Nicole didn't want to tag along," he explained. "Which way should we go? Away from the superiors?" he joked.

Remus nodded and led the way down the richly decorated carpet in the direction where the boys had come running. "I should have known that the prefects were down that way. When me and Nichole were stugglin' to find a place to sit, an upper year girl wearing this really outrageous purple cloak told us that there was a first-year sitting alone down the hall, and sure enough, we met you and that other kid."

"Peter," Remus corrected. Even though Peter may have kept quiet, that was probably just because he nervous. He probably fell asleep because, like Remus, he couldn't go to sleep from anticipation last night or even nights previous. And even though Peter did all of these things and stuck away from the others, he still deserved to have a name.

"Yeah, that's his name. So it's a little weird for me to meet so many people who want to be sorted in Hufflepuff. All my family is from there, and my cousins who went to Hogwarts—Nora is a sixth year- told me about all these stories of people making fun of our house. I don't get it personally; I wouldn't want to be sorted anywhere else. I think 'Puffs have the best qualities to boot."

"I hope you get sorted there then, you probably will since you want it so badly," Remus encouraged him.

"Thanks, mate." The boys walked past the different compartments. As they made their way further from their own compartment, Remus realised that Andrew must have been right about the enchantment to make the train appear smaller because they had passed dozens of rooms and they still weren't halfway down the hall. Most doors ranged from cracked open to fully opened giving them a chance to peek in on their schoolmates. Most of the compartments with the doors fully open were considerably older classmates that sat close together. In some of the rooms music blared from radios, with one compartment's occupants even dancing as the English countryside rushed past them. Conversations mixed with music that spilled from the compartments made the atmosphere in the cramped corridor seem warm and lively, not cold and standoffish Remus imagined the upper year students to be.  
In one room Remus caught sight of a small pale girl with long naturally dark red hair sit facing a person that Remus could only make out the dark hair and dark cloak. Remus slowed his pace so that he fell behind Andrew to see the girl more clearly. The girl's loud laughter contrasted the other's soft laugh and as Remus walked by, he wondered what could have made the girl laugh so much.

In another room not too far down with the pretty red-haired girl, a group of higher years sat around in a cramped circle in between the two rows of seats playing an eventful game of exploding snap whilst listening to some light wizard rock.

As the two boys ventured to the third corridor Remus looked outside to his left and found himself shocked from the dark colour that poisoned the sky while they were exploring.

"Maybe we should get back," Remus offered, his nerves entering his bloodstream again as he realised they were a lot closer to Hogwarts than this morning.

"That sounds like a smart idea," Andrew rolled off the words slowly off of his tongue, moving closer to the window to look at the now rocky terrain. "We're far up north now," he said authoritatively. Remus breathed in deeply as he touched his fingertips to the cool glass, trying to regain the sense he was feeling just before looking out of the window. While he had been on the train of course he had known that he was going to Hogwarts that as each second passed they all were one second closer to arriving at the school. But he had been able to ignore that lingering thought, to push down his feelings of anxiety, nervousness, and excitement. The boys retraced their steps as they made their long way back to their compartment.

Remus had just closed the door to the entrance from the third coach to the second when an elder teenager who had just left an end compartment walked up to them. The boy wore the ink black cloak of Hogwarts and had a badge pinned to his cloak in the right chest area.

"You two then," he said in a brisk London accent, hustling to them. "We're going to arrive to the station in under an hour. Please change into your uniforms for arrival." The seventeen year old did not wait to see if they understood as he walked past them to the nearest compartment, knocking twice before he entered to tell the occupants the message.

"Actin' like he's in charge," Andrew mumbled softly as Remus and he continued their walk to their compartment.

"Well, he was wearing a badge of some sort. He must be a prefect or head boy," Remus suggested as a way to concede the elder student's tone.

"Still doesn't grant him a right to act better than us. Who I might add, don't know when we are going to arrive. We're all wizards, the conductor could have made a message so everyone would know when to change into our uniforms instead of that prick telling us."

Remus held his response in his mind; he himself found no offense to the boy's behaviour. He was obviously someone in charge and Remus was thankful that he had told the two to change; otherwise he would not have known when to on his own. He could also forgive any crossness the boy might have shown by the sheer fact that he and the other students with leadership roles had the enormous task of alerting everyone that they had less than an hour to Hogwarts.

Less than an hour to Hogwarts.

Less than sixty minutes until they pulled into the station. Remus chanted this rote in his mind. Suddenly Remus began to take long determined strides like Andrew and caught pace with the blonde haired boy, trying to overcompensate his crippling nerves with false confidence that exuded so naturally from Andrew. With every window they passed Remus looked through it, anticipation and excitement building in his veins. Andrew opened the compartment door for him and Remus walked in to find Nicole and Peter putting on their cloaks.

"Just in time, a prefect came by and told us it was time to change."

"Yeah, I know. Some older jerk came up to us when we were walking back and told us the same thing." Remus turned his back to Andrew's complaint and opened his own trunk. He slipped off his dark grey cloak and put on the official black Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry first-year uniform. Before packing away his former cloak, Remus grabbed the letter his father had given him along with the chocolate he had forgotten about to slip into his pockets of his current robe.

"Are you all right, Peter?" Remus asked when he returned in his seat. The boy sitting in front of him seemed to have grown paler since he saw him last and the boy looked to the floor of the compartment.

"Yeah, I s'pose. I'm just nervous is all," he confessed as he still looked at the floor.

"That's quite all right," Remus continued, trying to cover his own nerves by being kind to Peter. "We all are; you aren't alone."

Peter looked up, clenching his hands in his lap, "I just can't stop thinkin' about if I am a hat stall and everyone laughing at me. I really don't see myself in any house."

"It doesn't matter how long it takes you." Remus felt as if he was lying to Peter because he himself did not know if it did mean anything—all he knew is that he wouldn't want to draw attention to himself when he would be sorted. "The Sorting Hat," Remus continued, trying to sound confident, "the sorting hat is never wrong and will be able to sort you accordingly. Any house you get into will be good for you, that much I am sure."

"Except Slytherin," Andrew called out from his standing position as he fastened the clasp to his cloak.

"Slytherins do have their good qualities," Remus assured Peter, trying to ignore Andrew.

"All I'm saying is that Hufflepuff has produced the least number of dark wizards. Slytherin, though, is the complete opposite. I bet everyone in that house speaks Parseltongue."

"What's Parseltongue?" Nicole asked.

"The language of snakes. All dark wizards can speak it," Andrew answered firmly.

"What was with all the screaming earlier?" Nicole asked, trying to change the topic.

"Two kids firing sparks from their wands at each other. They were heading straight to the prefect seats, so I bet they got into trouble soon after they passed our compartment." Remus watched Peter lean back in his seat, nervously wringing his hands together again in his lap. Remus himself looked through the glass to look at the dark night sky above the trees that were rushed together to form one dark continuous blob.

Fourteen days until his transformation in September, Remus marked in his mind. Exactly two weeks and he would undergo another huge first at the school. By that time though he would know his house and be packed in his dormitory with the other first-year boys of his house.

Remus fiddled with the pages of the book that he still had. He thought of his father's letter still in his pocket and he tried to calm down but it wasn't working. There was a buzzing in his ears from his excitement of seeing what house the hat would sort him into- the reality becoming more concrete in his mind than ever before.

Someone knocked on the door raptly before opening it, everyone stared as an older girl in her uniform peeked in through the opening. "We are expected to arrive at the Hogsmeade station in under half an hour. When we arrive, please leave all of your personal belongings in this compartment and they will be brought to your room after we arrive. When the train stops, please wait for the whistle before getting off." The girl finally stopped to take a breath, "are any of you first-years?" All of them in the compartment raised their hands. "Ah, excellent then! When you get off the train, please walk to the man calling out for you all." As quickly as she appeared the girl closed the door.

"These messages keep on getting more cryptic," Andrew commented.

"At least she was nice, unlike the one you and Remus go out in the corridor," Nicole offered.

"Well, that's true," he conceded, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his seat. "I can't wait to get sorted. I really really hope I get into Hufflepuff," Andrew told everyone again in the compartment. And for some reason, for a reason Remus couldn't exactly place or give rational thought to, Remus felt persuaded in not being in sorting into the Hufflepuff house.

Remus did not enjoy the idea of being dormmates with Andrew and having to listen to his near constant stream of complaints. He was being over judgemental, he knew this, yes. He had only really known Andrew for less than a whole day and he was already displacing his contentment for being placed in his own mother's former house just because of the personality of one of his possible house-mates? Maybe he was being ridiculous, but he couldn't help but think that other Hufflepuffs were like Andrew. Perhaps his mother was the exception, or perhaps Andrew was the exception. Remus didn't know and didn't know how to know and figure out the answer.

In the middle of his thoughts the train whistle sounded, shocking Remus out of his stupor. He froze, along with all of his other compartment mates, staring at each face of his companions that he had been with thus far

"I guess we should go then," Andrew said finally as sounds from other compartments around them showed that others were exiting the train.

"Yes, I suppose we should," Remus answered, forcing himself to stand. "Go to the gentlemen calling for first-years, right?" Everyone nodded and followed him out of the compartment that was suddenly too small for everyone to fit on. Remus and Peter were pushed against the walls next to their compartment by the flooding of other students leaving their own compartments and they struggled their way alongside the wall until there was a space for them to depart the train.


	5. Scene Five

**Scene Five**

"Remus?" he stopped on the platform and looked wildly around.

"Yes, Peter?" Remus couldn't quite see the small round boy but he heard him call his name once more. "Peter?" Remus called out and he felt slightly silly for yelling in a crowd full of people he did not know, drawing attention to himself from the small group of strangers around him. He did not see Nicole or Andrew either, and even though Andrew had been irking him on the train, Remus would not have complained if he had been around him at this particular moment. This particular moment, where no coherent thoughts could form in his mind because of the pure adrenaline caused by extreme fright and the mix of the hundreds of students exiting the train.

"Hey," Remus looked down and saw Peter tugging on his cloak, "finally found you."

"C'mon, let's go," Remus nodded as he heard a gruff loud voice call out for all first-years. Peter continued to hold tight to the cloth of Remus's cloak so they could not be separated again, an act that comforted him. Even though Remus had no attachment to this boy, he knew that whatever fear he himself was feeling was nothing compared to the frightened Peter. He felt sorry for him, knowing that he should not because Peter's own life would be forever easier than his own. A huddle of other first-years were grouped around a large, tall man that reminded Remus of a giant.

"First-years," the giant man called out again and again. "Now all er yers," he told the group who was already crowded around him, "Jus' stay tight, all right?" Remus looked at the man, having to squint against the dark sky to look at him better. His parents had not told him about this man with the long, crazy black beard and long black hair that was matted around his face. He had large lips and a big, round ruddy nose and wore a peculiar cloak with hundreds of pockets. Remus tried to get on the top of his toes to look for Andrew and Nicole but he was not able to see any sign of them and instead looked back at Peter, giving the boy a small smile to try and make him feel better.

"All the firs' years then, yes?" the giant called out. At the nods from around him he continued, "My name is Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. I will lead you lot to Hogwarts. Now ev'ryone follow me, please." The large group shuffled together as one, or that is what it felt like to Remus who was in the middle of the group of dark cloaks that rivalled the night sky. The group continued and Remus could barely see where he walked, envious of the giant who was able to hold a torch. Remus did not think of lighting his own wand, not wanting to draw attention to him because no one else had charmed his or her wand to point out light from its tip.

"Everyone gather in groups of fours," the giant named Rubeous Hagrid instructed them next. Peter looked blindly around to Remus, as if he had never heard of rounding into groups with other children before. "Everyone get onto the boats in groups of four," the man that introduced himself reminded the mass.

"Boats?" Peter asked Remus but his words were lost in the midst of all of the chattering around them by other first-year students.

"Do you mind if we join you two lovely gentlemen?" A loud voice whispered near Remus's ear causing him to stumble as he walked forward.

"What the bloody?" he called out startled at the person who had scared him. He looked around his shoulder to find one of the boys that had been running through the corridor earlier shooting sparks at another boy. This particular boy was the one with the long black hair to his shoulders and had been the shooter.

"Why, hello to you, too," the boy with the long black hair and grey eyes said slowly with a smile. "Again, do you mind if we jump in with you?"

"Sure, yes, I don't know, of course," Remus rushed the words through his mouth to the boy as he continued to walk in the awkward fashion of walking forward but facing the area behind him.

"James!" the boy called out, turning his gaze from Remus. "James!" he called again as the other boy who had been in the hallway running came up from behind the boy with the long black hair. "James, there you are. These two fine lads will let us boat with them."

The boy named James look pleased and winked in Remus's direction. "Thank you, sir, quite kind of you," he said above the crowd's mumbling roar.

"Watch yer step," Hagrid yelled as Remus and Peter went up to the shore of the lake to get in a small wooden boat.

"What?" Remus turned his head in time before he had the chance to walk into the water and make his trainers his robe's hem soaked. Peter climbed aboard first and he followed suit, still distracted by the two boys behind him.

"I still can't believe that put a charm over your windows," the shorted boy with the crazed black hair said to the other one.

"I try not to think of it," the boy replied back before tapping Remus on the shoulder.

"How rude were we? Invade ourselves upon your noble ship and we haven't even introduced ourselves yet," the boy with the long hair said to Remus smoothly. "My name is Sirius Black and this," he tapped the shoulder to the boy with the crazy black hair and hazel eyes, "is my dear friend, James Potter."

"Remus, Remus Lupin," he introduced himself quietly and shook both of their outstretched hands.

"Well, hello Remus Remus Lupin," James answered while sporting a half-grin.

"I'm Peter," the rotund boy squeaked from up front. He stood up to try and shake the two new boys' hands but the boat wobbled and he instantly sat back down.

"It's all right, mate," Sirius or James yelled out as both boys snickered in their back seats of the small boat. Remus turned back around in his seat, turning his back to Sirius and James. "Merlin, you know what would be such a good idea?" Sirius nearly screamed.

"What?" James asked excitedly back.

"We should totally try and catch the giant squid that lives in this lake!" Sirius called out loudly, leaning over in the boat so that he could touch the lake's water that reflected the night sky.

"Oh, man, that is such a good idea. We would become so cool if we did that," James replied back. Remus tried not to look back at the two's excited whisperings about plans to catch the squid. If it weren't for the fact that they had different last names Remus would have figured them as brothers or other familial relations. Their easy conversations with each other and playful manner seem like they had known each other long before this morning's train ride.

"Everyone look ahead! The view is coming up right about now," Rubeous Hagrid yelled somewhere in front of the boat brigade over the lake. Remus looked up and nearly gasped at what he saw. The Hogwarts castle that his parents described looked nothing like this gigantic piece of architecture with thousands of lighted windows. Four large stone towers stood above the body of the school and Remus's eyes glazed together because of all the candles in the windows, causing his eyes to blend the different sections of towers into one blob of an image.

"Holy fuck," he heard Sirius mumble under his breath.

"I gladly second that," he heard James answer in the same awe-inspired whisper.

"Holy Merlin, we live here," Sirius said breathlessly. "This is our home for the next seven years."

"I hope we are housemates, other wise we are going to have to find out ways to break into each other's house common rooms."

"That is such a deal," James agreed. Remus envied them in a different way in which he had envied Nicole. These two were obviously from wizarding families or either knew much of the wizard world and had each other to start the term of Hogwarts with while everyone else had to find friends. Remus had not felt alone up until this point because everyone else he had met had known no one either, at least not in the same way as Sirius and James obviously knew each other. The distance from his parents seemed ten times as enormous when compared to the closeness of the two boys in the back. Remus touched the face of his wristwatch his parents had given him this morning, though he couldn't see it in the clear dark sky. With only two weeks until the full moon, the current moon was just a small sliver in the sky, unable to give enough light for anyone to see clearly. Remus changed his gaze to out in front of him to the boat with the large torch with the giant man leading them.

He tried to beat down the nervousness that crept through his veins. His feet tapped the wooden bottom of the boat as they approached the castle. Even the two boys behind him had quieted down their chatter to stare at the stone structure. Remus tried to remember every detail so he could regale his parents with what he exactly saw and who he sat with, and thought about asking them if they had ever heard of someone catching the giant squid. He himself thought it must be impossible, and quite frankly, a mean thing to do by catching a harmless creature or being purposely mean to it just because it was a creature. Remus stared down into the water but only saw the reflection of the stars facing him, the ripples from the magically moving boats causing the reflections to dance upon the water in a way that was impossible for real stars to do.

He reminded himself to breath as he closed his eyes while he exhaled and inhaled. Trying to calm himself down was futile, he realised and tried to imagine himself actually enjoying the nerves running amuck throughout his entire body, but did not know where to start.

"So have either of you two fine young gentlemen ever heard of the joke about the old wizard in the Leaky Cauldron-?" Sirius leaned his head over Remus's shoulder as he set up the joke but James stopped him.

"No, Sirius. You do not need to tell anyone else that joke," James panted through heavy laughs that caused him to wrap his arms around his sides. "Don't you dare," the boy with the crazy hair wheezed through laughing.

"I guess I'm tied up," Sirius said in apology to Remus.

"It's all right," Remus answered honestly. He didn't know how to react to jokes unless it was from his mother or father. With anyone else he was afraid of not laughing if the joke wasn't what he considered humorous, but if it was funny then Remus worried about laughing too much and looking like a fool. He watched James continue to laugh in his seat, pushing his forehead into Sirius's left shoulder as he continued to laugh at the memory of the joke. James could pull it off well, Remus thought as he stared at the pair, but if Remus acted like James then he would just look weird and out of place, but this boy James made it seem natural and easy-going. Remus turned his head back to the front of the boat as it slowed to the dock. Earlier groups who had gotten to them before Remus's group were beginning to get out and follow Hagrid up the stairs to the entrance of the castle. They were forced to walk in single file as they climbed the criss-crossing stone stairs that had been cut into the side of the hilltop. They continued in a single-file line even when they read the grounds of Hogwarts.

Remus craned his neck to see the top of the castle from the ground view but couldn't admire the picture for long as he was forced walk into the grand, enormous front wooden doors that four Hagrids could have filled.

"Thank you, sir," Remus managed to say to the giant man holding the door. At his words Rubeous Hagrid merely nodded before flashing a toothy grin.

"Stop where ya are," Hagrid gruffed from the door as the last of the first-years walked through the doorway. Remus looked in the huge room where everyone stood, clumping together.

Remus didn't know if the view from the outside while they crossed the lake was better or worse than his current view of the castle's interior. Large stonewalls were covered with moving pictures and tapestries that depicted scenes of medieval chivalry and magical creatures. The subjects in the hundreds of pictures that filled the area in front of the main entrance to the castle grouped together in large frames to look at the first years, calling out a multitude of "hellos" and "welcomes." Remus had seen magical portraits before, but he was more acquainted with photographs that only moved and were unable to speak, and he didn't if he liked them or not. Peter stayed close to him and James and Sirius were still close behind him, even their chatter was replaced by the talkings of the portraits.

A hush fell over the group and it took Remus a moment to realise that no one else was talking. Even the portraits seemed to quiet down and Remus stood on the tips of his shoes to see what was going on.

An elder looking stern witch had appeared in front of the crowd wearing emerald cloaks and wore tiny librarian glasses on her nose. Her narrowed eyes looked over the children, as if assessing their worth in one sweep of her eyes.

"Now then," she spoke when she felt assured that all attention was on her.

"This is Professor Minerva McGonagall," Hagrid called merrily from his position in the back of the entrance hall.

"Thank you. Hagrid," Professor Minerva McGonagall called icily back. "You may join the others in the Great Hall if you wish," she said in a tone that made it seem like a command instead of an option for the giant to do.

"That sounds loverly," Hagrid said unaware of her true connotation of her phrase. "I'll see all of yer first-years in a quick bit," his smile could have broken his face but it seemed genuine, thought Remus. Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, what a wordy job title and Remus struggled to figure out what that exactly that job entailed.

"The Great Hall is not yet ready for all of you yet," Professor McGonagall said to the group of first-years. Remus still had to stand on the tips of his toes to get a proper view of the Deputy Headmistress that signed his acceptance letter. He wondered what subject she taught and Remus was positive that she was a stern teacher because of the authoritative air she gave off. Hagrid, the only other example of a teacher figure, had never once dropped his smile and this new woman failed to show a smile yet.

"Please follow me and remain quiet," Professor McGonagall frowned at the group before turning around sharply and led them to a side room that was just big enough to accommodate them. "You are about to partake in the Sorting Ceremony at Hogwarts," she informed all of them in a serious tone. "This is an ancient tradition leading back to the founders and should not be taken lightly," she paused to look at a boy who had interrupted her with a sneeze. "While you are here for the next seven years, your house will be your family.

The four houses are Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff—all names of the founders of this school. Every year all the houses participate in the House Cup with the house that has accommodated the most house points named winner; I suggest you all do your part to help your house. Your hard work will earn your house points whilst misdemeanours will deduct points from your house. I will return in a short while to lead all of you to the Great Hall. I suggest you all take this time to fix yourselves in a presentable manner in front of all of your schoolmates and future professors." McGonagall addressed this to everyone but looked disdainfully at James Potter's and Sirius Black's hair.

"Please remain quiet," she warned before she disappeared through the door and locked all of the first-years alone in a room. There were no windows or any decorations in the room; only the essentials of stonewalls and a wooden door. The closest thing to a window in the room was a small, empty portrait that hung on one of the walls.

Remus had never seen an empty portrait before and wondered if the person in it was invisible or if it was charmed so that if it did have occupants, they were allowed to leave rooms with no other pictures near them. Small cobwebs existed in all the candle fixtures and in the four corners of the dank, musty smelling room that made Remus think that the room was not often used.

Away from teacher supervision James and Sirius resumed their conversation, changing the topic to what everyone was now concerned about: the Sorting. All around Remus the topic of choice was all about where one belonged, the reality of it being so much more concrete than on the train. Muggleborns and children from wizard households alike felt the anticipation before getting sorted into a house that would define them for the next seven years and their entire lives beyond Hogwarts.

"I hope mine goes quickly," whispered one girl near Remus to a friend.

"I'm bound to be in Ravenclaw, aren't I? Where else would the hat sort me?" panicked one boy to himself.

Remus couldn't see how the others were able to speak when his own anxiety caused his mouth to clamp shut. He felt for his father's letter in his cloak pocket and just feeling its presence soothed Remus's mind. Reminding himself that he should not alienate himself he turned to the boys behind him.

"C'mon, Dumbledore himself is a Gryffindor. Because of that fact alone Gryffindor is the best house," James recited proudly to Peter.

"No one is denying the power of Gryffindor; I can't think of another house I would want to be in," Sirius said casually.

"You only want to be in Gryffindor because of your entire family," James retorted, changing his stance so that he could look at Sirius face on.

"What about you? I bet you only want to be in it so badly because both of your parents were."

"Maybe that is what got me interested it in when I was a kid, but I can decide on my own."

"Are you all right Peter?" asked Remus, turning his attentions away from the exuberant boys.

"Yes, yes. I just hope I'm not a hat-stall like my aunt. She told me that it took her ages to get sorted and when she was, everyone in the hall clapped because it took her such a while."

Remus hadn't heard of a hat stall for going longer than a few minutes, but he found no reason to disbelieve Peter's story. Peter shook his head in a way to rid his mind of his thoughts, "Do you think you two will get into the house you want?" Peter asked absent-mindedly to everyone in their four person circle.

"Definitely," James answered confidently, pushing out his chest.

"I have a feeling I will get into Gryffindor," replied Sirius in a strange, ambiguous tone.

It was Remus's turn and he ducked his gaze to the floor when the three stared at him. "Er," he coughed, trying to clear his throat. "I am pretty sure that I will get into Ravenclaw," he said, not even caring to place Hufflepuff in the sentence as he did before.

"Cool, Ravenclaw is the second best house," James told Remus in a serious tone, as if being second-best was a compliment to Remus's choice of house.

No one in the group thought of asking Peter the same question; Remus because he already knew the answer, and Sirius and James had reverted back to their previous discussion on the pros and cons of each House, with James even bringing in a considerable wealth of knowledge of Hogwarts Quidditch statistics.

A quick series of knocks on the closed wooden door caused a hush to blanket the room, giving Remus a good excuse to turn his back to James and Sirius to look ahead. The wooden door opened and Professor McGonagall looked over the group of first years.

"We are ready for you. Now everyone form into a line, quickly now," she reprimanded the group as they struggled to form a line in the small room. "Follow me," she commanded sternly.


	6. Scene Six

**Scene Six**

The first years shuffled out of the closet-sized room and crossed the Entrance Hall through a pair of grand dark oak double doors into what Remus imagined to be the Great Hall. Long, clothed tables were lined perpendicular to doors, a raised platform housed the Professors' Table parallel to the group of first-years making their way timidly down the room.

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore sat in the middle of the teachers' table wearing light purple wizard robes. His long white beard hung neatly all the way down to his chest and even though Remus was still far away from the table in line, he could see the headmaster smile at all of the first-years. Unlike the rest of the first years, even the students from wizard households, Remus had met Dumbledore once during the summer. It had been after Remus received his acceptance letter- when Dumbledore sent a letter to his parents requesting an introduction meeting to alleviate any fears they felt. His parents were cautious when the owl came during Sunday breakfast, wondering if the letter was sent by mistake, wondering if the school didn't know Remus's name was on the Ministry of Magic's Werewolf Registry. Without words, but with worried eyes and titled heads, Remus was discouraged to celebrate the letter that gave him a seat at the boarding school.

The requested meeting was scheduled days later, early in the morning. Without another word, Remu's father took time off from his work to attend. The headmaster came to their home, not through the flood network, but by knocking on the front door. Remus was sent to his room upstairs to let his parents talk with the headmaster in the living rom, but later on that Tuesday afternoon Remus was able to talk with Dumbledore outside alone.

Remus felt his cheeks turn red as the hundred of students already present looked at the newcomers. Above their heads the roof of the Great Hall had been enchanted to look like the present night sky and thousands of stars glowed over them like the thousands of candles that floated in mid-air. Remus glanced briefly to one of the tables, trying to discern where each House sat, but looked back down embarrassed when he caught someone's gaze. Professor McGonagall led the first years to the end of the room in front of the teacher's table so that the line of first-years faced the other students and their backs turned to the teachers. Remus stared out in front of him as the deputy headmistress carried a three-legged wooden stool to the centre of the raised platform where the first years stood. On top of the simple chair she placed a mangy looking dark brown wizard's hat. It was patched in multiple places and loose strings popped out more often than not, but the older students looked upon it with a sort of reverence- as if they were waiting for something to happen. Remus followed their gazes and looked forward, not knowing what he was supposed to be looking at.

Suddenly, to Remus's delight, a mouth formed where Remus thought the hat was ripped and the object began to speak in deep, rough voice:

_A thousand years or more this day,_

_Stiches sewn then I was born_

_There lived four wizards of renown,_

_Whose names are still well known:_

_Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,_

_Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,_

_Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,_

_Shrewd Slytherin, from fen._

_They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,_

_They hatched a daring plan_

_To educate young sorcerers_

_Thus Hogwarts School began._

_Now each of these four founders_

_Formed their own house, for each_

_Did value different virtues_

_In the ones they had to teach._

_By Gryffindor, the bravest were_

_Prized far beyond the rest;_

_For Ravenclaw, the cleverest_

_Would always be the best;_

_For Hufflepuff, hard workers were_

_Most worthy of admission;_

_And power-hungry Slytherin_

_Loved those of great ambition._

_While still alive they did divide_

_Their favourites from the throng,_

_Yet how to pick the worthy ones_

_When they were dead and gone?_

'_Twas Gryffindor who found the way,_

_He whipped me off his head_

_The founders put some brains in me_

_So I could choose instead!_

_Now slip me snug about your ears,_

_I've never yet been wrong,_

_I'll have a look inside your mind_

_And tell where you belong!_

The voice died out and silence hugged the Great Hall for a moment before a magnificent ruckus rebounded about the room from the cheers and claps from first the older students then to the first-years. Remus looked over his shoulder to see all of the teachers clapping politely, except for Hagrid who was thumping the table with his fist and yelling out "Beaut'ful." Headmaster Dumbledore caught his gaze and Remus ducked his head around in embarrassment. Professor McGonagall waited until the din had died down in the Great Hall. Once it was quiet, she walked to the side of the Sorting Hat and unrolled a thick piece of parchment.

"Allens, Matthew," Professor McGonagall recited from the list in a strong, clear voice. A tall thin boy with red hair to the right of Remus stepped from the line and looked nervously around before he walked to the stool. Everyone in the Great Hall stared as Matthew Allen looked at the hat and nervously placed it over his head once he sat down on the stool. A few laughs came from the older students as Matthew suddenly twitched when the hat completely covered his head.

"Slytherin!" the Sorting Hat barrelled out, causing Remus and other first-years to jump from its sudden outburst. Matthew took the hat off of his head and stood, looking happy as he set the hat back down and jogged to the farthest table to the left of where Remus stood to meet the clapping and cheering Slytherins. Remus felt for his father's letter in his pocket and remembered to breath. One part of him liked the idea of having a last name beginning with the letter 'L' and another part of him hated it. While it gave him time to calm down before his name would be called, he wanted to get the sorting over with.

"Avett, Lucille," Remus looked to his left and right but didn't see a girl step out of line. To the amusement of the older students McGonagall called out the name again moments later and someone pushed a small, thick girl from the line. The Ravenclaw table that sat next to the Slytherins roared in appreciation as she was sorted into that house. Remus was fixated as he saw his classmates have his or her turn to be called and sorted.

"Black, Sirius," the professor announced and Remus watched Sirius step from the line next to James and strut to the stool. He was the first one who did not appear anxious at being called out. Before putting on the hat Sirius looked to McGonagall and made a kissing face to her. Remus was surprised when the hat did not call out his house as soon as it touched Sirius's head; the boy had been so intent on being sorted into Gryffindor that Remus assumed it would only take a moment for the deal to become official. But instead, the hat took its time to decide.

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouted from its mouth and instantly James, who was standing next to Remus, jumped up and down. But he was the only one that seemed excited. A girl with extremely blonde hair stood up from the Slytherin table looking appalled, and she was not the only one who looked displeased from that table. Even the older members of the Gryffindor table looked as confused as the Slytherins. A weak clap started from the table and gradually grew as Sirius walked from the teacher's platform to the table, but it was the quietest welcome that had occurred. Even James had stopped his celebrations to watch the strange reception occur.

Professor McGonagall continue to call out names and a dozen of first years had been sorted. The only thing that was causing Remus to still remain perfectly interested and involved was his nerves and a vague countdown for his own name would be called.

"Evans, Lily," Professor McGonagall said and the red haired girl that Remus had seen earlier on the train stepped out on the far end of the line. She walked unsurely to the stool and placed the frayed hat upon her head so that the brim rested on her shoulders.

The farthest table to the right of Remus shouted and cheered as they welcomed Lily to the Gryffindor house. Remus could only see her back but she walked with face shielded by her hair. She was different from the others because she didn't seem relieved or happy at her sorting. Remus was not alone in this observation for James nudged him, "What's her problem? Why would she want to be in that other house?" he whispered to him. Remus shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what he meant by the "other house" and looked back to the stool as "Forest, McKenzie" took his place and was sorted into Hufflepuff. Remus could feel his palms begin to sweat and he pushed them into his trouser pockets and reminded himself yet again to breath. He turned his head slightly over his shoulder to look at Dumbledore again and was able to stare at him unnoticed. His crooked nose seemed comical and his half-moon glasses only accentuated the look. Professor Dumbledore had his elbows on the wooden table in front of him and rested his chin on both of his curled hands. Remus flicked his eyes to see a brunette girl get sorted into Slytherin but moved his gaze back to Dumbledore who was clapping politely. Before Remus could get caught staring again he looked away and focused his attention on his building nerves.

Remus allowed himself to feel pure panic as the first of the 'L' last names opened with "Lane, Cole" and watched a boy get sorted into Ravenclaw. He shifted his weight from one foot to another and repeated the house name Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in his head. He unpocketed one hand from his pants to feel the thick parchment of his father's letter in his cloak pocket but knowing it was there did not calm him down as before. It didn't matter where he was sorted, he told himself; it felt like an eternity since his mother told him those exact words that morning. But that was a lie, and he knew it. He couldn't picture himself in Slytherin, a house where he did not know much about, but he had seen the students previous of him get sorted into that house and on looks alone he didn't think that they were alike. He couldn't picture himself in a house with people like James and Sirius who were boisterous and unafraid-he could easily how they would be Gryffindors. But at the same time he had trouble seeing himself in a house with Andrew, who had yet to be sorted. So maybe he belonged to Ravenclaw, he thought, after the process of elimination with the other houses.

"Lupin, Remus," Professor McGonagall called from the list and the thoughts from Remus's head vanished from fear.

"Good luck, mate," James whispered to Remus and gave him a thumbs-up. Remus stepped from the dwindling line of first-years and took shaky steps to the three-legged wooden stool with the centuries old hat. He looked at McGonagall and slightly nodded in acknowledgement before he picked up the leather wizard's cap and sat down. His legs shook and he hoped that it wasn't obvious to the people watching. Remus stared ahead in the empty space between the two middle houses before he slowly placed the hat over his head. He couldn't see anything but he closed his eyes anyway, breathing in the old leather smell from the hat. The smell calmed him and he wondered when the hat would call out his house.

Remus jumped as a voice whispered in his ear and he realised it was the hat talking to him.

"A half-breed, eh? Haven't had one of you in awhile," the hat whispered into Remus's head. Remus wasn't sure if he should talk back to the hat or not, but he did not like being called a 'half-breed.'

"You will easily do well in Ravenclaw," the hat continued to whisper in a slow deep voice. "But you would make a fine Hufflepuff as well." Remus breathed in, nervously waiting for his fate to be announced to him and the entire hall. "Hmm, but that is too easy." Remus frowned, he hadn't expected the hat to say that, but then again, he didn't expect the hat to whisper in his ear. "No, you think you want to be in Ravenclaw." Remus gasped, not knowing that the hat could read his most current thoughts. "Ravenclaw will not push you, neither will Hufflepuff. No, I am right on this.

"Gryffindor!" the hat yelled out. Remus wasn't sure the hat had merely told him that or announced it to the hall until he heard shouting and clapping from the farthest table to his right. Dazed and still shaking, Remus lifted the hat from his head and furrowed his eyes at the table where the other sorted Gryffindors sat at.

Remus looked towards the Ravenclaw house table, but the occupants were sitting still and quiet, talking amongst themselves.

Gryffindor.

Really?


	7. Scene Seven

**Scene Seven**

Remus stood up and set the hat gently on the stool, hoping that it was an illusion and he would wake up in his bed and realise that he hadn't left home yet at all. Numbly he walked to the farthest long table to his right, focusing all of his thoughts on properly walking down the stairs from the teacher's platform to the main floor of the Great Hall. His senses were so numbed that he could not feel anything, his ears deafened by the clapping and congratulations that were sent his way from the house renown for bravery. Remus merely existed and his mind was vacant from pure confusion. He slid onto the bench beside the red-haired girl Lily Evans.

"Way to go, mate!" Remus looked up from the golden goblets and plates from the table to look at Sirius lean over the table with an outstretched vertical hand. Weakly Remus returned the high-five and tried his best to smile. Another student was sorted into Hufflepuff but Remus didn't care.

Gryffindor. That was unexpected and he wasn't sure as to how he should react. He knew nothing about Gryffindor, his knowledge was primarily based in the ample descriptions of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. He wasn't a Gryffindor, he couldn't be, this was an obvious mistake. He was a hard-worker, yes; a dedicated worker, yes; he was kind and tried to accept people for who they were, yes. He read a lot, yes; he had a curiosity fostered by his mother and father, yes; he thought before acting; yes. He was obviously bettered equipped to be a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw student, and a good one at that. He surely wasn't brave, confident, or the typical bronze over brain kind of guy. Remus looked at Sirius, someone who was sure of his place. Remus wasn't Sirius-how could they be linked together in the same house? Remus remembered one of James's points for wanting to be in Gryffindor: Dumbledore himself came from this house. Well if that wasn't intimidating enough, he wasn't sure what was. How could he be in the same house as one of the greatest and nicest wizards of modern times? He had known about the power of Professor Dumbledore even when he was a child, with his father telling him stories of the great duel between him and Gellert Grindelwald.

How could Remus ever live up to that? Who was he, a werewolf no less, to think that he could compare himself to the undeniably greatest wizard of his time?

Another student was sorted, this time in Ravenclaw. Remus watched enviously from his seat as the dark haired boy with square glasses joined the table next to the Slytherins. Jealousy pained his heart and he felt miserable as he sat alongside strangers. That should have been him being greeted by the Ravenclaw house. That should have been him and he knew it.

Remus thought back to the Sorting Hat's first comments of him being a werewolf, calling him a half-blood, calling him less than human. If the Hat could read his thoughts then what was to say that the Hat knew perfectly well that he most desperately wanted to be like his father and become a Ravenclaw student but placed him in a house he hated because of prejudice? He had encountered it before, Remus and everyone connected to him was displaced from society just because of his condition. Remus picked the skin near his nails under the wooden table until one finger bled. Remus stuck the finger in his mouth and sucked the blood, trying not to let anyone else know of is inner turmoil. With his finger still in his mouth he looked over to Lily Evans sitting next to him. Like him, she didn't look too happy. Maybe like him she wanted to be in another house. Lily sat up straight in her seat and tried her best to look over at the line of remaining students. Remus wiped the saliva off of his fingers on his pants and looked in the direction of her gaze. He didn't see anything particularly special; from his seat he only saw a group of unsorted students near where Rubeus Hagrid sat.

She must know one of them, he thought. Another student was sorted into Ravenclaw but Lily didn't change her gaze from the group of students near the end of the line. She must be another student from a wizard household, he assumed, for her to know someone else. Maybe she had a friend and they hoped to be sorted into the same house, or maybe she wanted to be in another house and looked in the direction of where that house sat. She too must have wanted to be either a Ravenclaw, or possibly a Slytherin. It was hard for Remus to tell just from her gaze because of the proximity of the two tables.

"MacDonald, Mary!" Remus heard McGonagall say clearly and a small girl with her hazelnut coloured hair in two braids was sorted into Gryffindor. Remus looked to his right where the older students sat, the whole table seemed to vibrate from the shouts and chants of "Gry-fin-dor! Gry-fin-dor!" Mary took a station next to Sirius and gave a nervous nod to the other first years around her; she gave a small smile to Lily. Sirius went so far as to envelope her into a hug.

Remus felt the end of his father's letter poke him in the side and he adjusted the letter in his pocket. Anger at his predicament in being sorted into this house was overridden by dread. How would he tell his parents? He could he begin to tell them that he was sorted into Gryffindor? Sure, his parents had told him not to worry about the sorting—that they would be proud as to whichever house he would be put into, but Remus knew that was a lie. They were supposed to say things like to, that's what parents did. Remus didn't know much about his father's family, but he did know an overwhelming amount of his family members were sorted into Ravenclaw, with a few spattering in Hufflepuff and Slytherin. It was a point of pride to have one family be linked together in Hogwarts Houses. He knew his father would never admit it, but Remus knew he would have made his father especially proud if he was sorted into his former house. And if he was sorted into Hufflepuff, that would make his mother so proud. She probably would have started to cry at the knowledge of her only son being sorted into her own house. But Gryffindor? This was completely unexpected. Would his parents even believe him when he wrote the news to them later tonight?

"Pettigrew, Peter!" Remus stopped his thinking when he saw Peter step from the line from next to James and waddle to the stool. Nervously Peter put on the Sorting Hat after being told to by McGonagall. Remus wondered what house he would see Peter get sorted into and wished the best for the nervous boy.

"Gryffindor!" the hat called out and again the Gryffindor house went wild at their table. Peter seemed to look as shocked as Remus by his sorting for his eyes were the widest Remus had seen them. Peter made his way quickly to the table and sat down next to Remus. Sirius congratulated Peter and gave him a high-five from across the table.

Now Remus was thoroughly confused; was this all just an elaborate dream that he was having in his bed from home? How did Gryffindor have a range of people like Sirius, who was obviously confident and brave, to leaders like Dumbledore, to all the way of people like Peter who appeared meek and afraid of everything? Peter was surely feeling as shocked and confused as Remus still felt. Remus made a point of telling Peter 'hello' and smile at him; making a promise to himself to go out of his way to be nice to the body because of how scared and bewildered he must feel.

Four more people were sorted before "Potter, James!" was called out by Professor McGonagall. Sirius, Peter, and Remus all stared onward as James separated himself from the line and walked confidently to the stool. The hat barely touched his head for two seconds before the animated inanimate object shouted out "Gryffindor!" James almost threw the hat off the stool as he rushed to put it down and ran across the stage to the Gryffindor table with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"We made it!" the full force of James's yell was lost in the midst of the cheering Gryffindors. James sat next to Sirius and threw his arm over the boy's shoulder. "Oh, man, I am so happy. I was getting really nervous up there." Remus noticed Lily turn her head and narrow her eyes at James before looking back to the end of the first-year lines. "We are going to have so much fun together," James promised Sirius, still smiling about being sorted into his chosen house. As much as Remus knew he shouldn't feel this way, a part of him did not like his or Sirius's happiness from being sorted into their favoured house. It wasn't fair for them to be so happy when Remus, Lily, and Peter weren't.

"Merlin!" Sirius exclaimed and everyone around him looked disapprovingly at him because someone was currently being sorted. "Did you see the scores for the Holyhead Harpies versus France last week, or was it two weeks ago?" Lily turned her head in such a way that her hair flipped to show her annoyance. Remus turned to his right, facing away from the sorting to look at Lily. She still wore a frown on her pale face and her eyebrows were furrowed as she continued to stare at that mysterious spot near the end of the line of first-years. She was pretty he had to admit that to himself. She was pretty in a quiet way that Remus liked even though he wouldn't have been able to explain it. And, for at least this moment, she acted like she did not like Sirius or James; and Remus enjoyed the thought of sharing the same thoughts as her. She must have felt his eyes on her for she turned her head softly around and made eye contact with him. Remus ducked his head down but was able to catch a glimpse of her brilliantly green eyes. He only looked up again when he was sure that she had taken her eyes from him. He tried to focus on the rest of the sorting, granting his classmates the same respect that he was given when he was sorted but he kept getting distracted by Sirius and James's conversation across from him.

"I don't understand why first-years can't be on the Quidditch team," James complained loudly about as the Hufflepuff table cheered as a student was sorted there.

"I don't know why we aren't allowed to have brooms. I might just bring mine home after winter break if the school brooms aren't acceptable," Sirius said as "Rosier, Evans!" was sorted into Slytherin.

"Oh yeah, there are brooms we can borrow," James answered. "I forgot, thanks man for reminding me. I need to stay in shape so I can make the Quidditch team next year."

"That's so cool. What position do you want?" Sirius began to play with the silverware set in front of him.

"I don't make a bad Keeper but I think I would like to try being a Chaser." James turned his head to the enchanted ceiling, "no," he looked back at Sirius, "I think I might want to be a Keeper," he paused again. "I don't know. I can't decide. Both positions are fun to play. What is your favourite?"

Sirius leaned back as he thought, "Beater. I seriously think that is my favourite position that I like to play. I don't get to play often though, I don't have many people to play with," he explained to James. "It's usually me just flying around on a broom when my family and I are out in the country visiting or during the summer."

"Why can you only fly around during the summer?" James asked, slightly appalled at the idea of not being able to fly whenever someone wanted.

"I live around a bunch of Muggles. I've already gotten into loads of trouble before from flying in front of them."

"Oh," James exhaled. "Oh, I get it. I bet it would be hard to explain to a thick Muggle kid why you are flying around a broom." The Ravenclaw table cheered as a first-year walked to their table. "You should totally come to my house so we can play pick up matches whenever and we don't have to worry about Muggles or flying too low. And we can use our own brooms instead of the school's."

"That does sound nice," Sirius replied as he tapped the end of his fork on the tablecloth.

"Snape, Severus!" Headmistress McGonagall called and Remus saw Lily sit up. Sure enough Remus stared to the end of line as before and saw a lean boy with black, slick hair walk from the dwindling line of first-years and walk to the three-legged stool. He slipped the wizard cap on. Remus stared at Lily again and saw that she had her fingers crossed on the tabletop and seemed to be mouthing something so only she could hear.

"Slytherin!" the hat announced and the table opposite of Gryffindor erupted into celebration. Lily slumped in her seat and no longer looked to the sorting, instead only choosing to look at her hands. Remus felt sorry for her; clearly she wanted to be in a House with her friend and he could empathise even though he couldn't relate himself.

"Jeez, when do you think they will be done?" Sirius complained loudly, drawing more negative looks from the upper years near them.

"I don't know. We can't be too far done though, look how many have been sorted," James replied as he turned his head to look over his shoulder.

"I am so starving it's not even funny," Sirius continued to complain. Remus looked up and remembered about the chocolate his father had given him. Was it really that morning when Remus had left his parents? It had felt like an eternity since he was in his room packing is last few items.

"I-" Remus started, drawing the attention of James, Sirius, and Peter. "I have chocolate," he offered weakly. He pushed his hand around his other cloak pocket and retrieved the bar. "I had forgotten all about it," the boys looked at the bar, "my father gave it to me this morning. Would you like a piece?"

Sirius looked from the offering to Remus, "That is so cool, man. That's so nice of you."  
"Yeah thank you, it feels like forever ago since we ate on the Hogwarts Express," James mirrored Sirius's gratitude. Remus broke off even chunks of chocolate and handed it to Sirius, James, Peter, and Mary. Lily looked up from the table and he motioned for her to have a share. It took her a moment before she reached out a hand to grab a slice, but she nodded and returned a smile. Remus took the last piece and popped it in his mouth, savouring the taste as he pondered why Lily was reluctant to take a piece when everyone else had grabbed their share with no thought.

She was different from everyone else, he realised. And he didn't mind that fact because he knew he was different, too. They were both united in the fact that they didn't want to be in the same house—or that is what he liked to think. She also didn't seem to like Sirius and James, just like him. He also didn't like the way they ignored the sorting after they were sorted in favour of Quidditch, a topic in which he didn't have much to say about.

Professor McGonagall called out the last name and the tan girl nearly ran to the stool so she wouldn't have to be the last first-year standing any longer than she had to. The girl was sorted into Hufflepuff and Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment and picked up the stool. Remus joined along in the clapping with everyone else even though he wasn't quite sure why everyone was clapping. Was it because they too were ready to eat or because they were welcoming all of first-years together as a whole?

Headmaster Dumbledore did not stand until Professor McGonagall took her seat next to him. The bubbling levels of conversation muted when Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat. When all eyes were upon him he smiled and spread his arm wide, "Welcome, welcome, all of you!" he cried with what seemed like genuine happiness at all of students being present. "I know all of you must be perished from your long journey here but I would like to say 'something.'" Dumbledore closed his mouth but continued to beam at them. Remus wondered what he wanted to say but Dumbledore had already sat himself back down. As soon as he sat down the students in the Great Hall erupted into applause and cheers. Remus looked around bewildered and was glad to see that all of the first-years around him look confused like him. And it dawned on him; it was a joke. He wasn't sure what he expected the Headmaster to say as his welcoming speech, but he certainly didn't expect him to open with a joke. Remus smiled to himself and began to laugh but quickly stopped when he saw the others stare at him, still confused.

A grin slowly formed on James's face and he started to laugh along with Remus, though his confident laugh made a shadow of Remus's. "Stop it, what are you laughing at. Tell me," Sirius commanded with a small glare.

"It's a joke, you dunce," James had to yell at Sirius due to the noise echoing around the Great Hall.

Sirius's blossoming insult was cut short before execution because food appeared on the table, filling the empty trays stationed in the middle of the table. Sirius compromised by sending James's one last glare before he started to load his plate with food. Remus was too overwhelmed by the amount of food and the large amount of choice around his end of the table alone. All of the ways to prepare chicken and beef were present at the Gryffindor table and Remus pushed away the anger that he felt to his mind to allow his stomach to hold as much food as possible. Remus did not realise how hungry he was until the aromas from the table filled his body. He took a little from all of the plates around him, unlike James and Sirius who had dribbled food all of their plates and had it packed the food inches high on both of their plates.


	8. Scene Eight

**Scene Eight**

The conversation lulled as everyone began to eat, Sirius and James acting as though they hadn't eaten in days. Remus noted how Lily barely got any food when compared with the others, including himself, but even she began to eat heartedly as time went on. He lost knowledge of whether he was actually hungry anymore or just wanting to taste as much as he possibly could; and he was prompted by the others to do so. He had never seen so much food in one sitting and he wasn't going to pass it up. He was glad his fear had masked his hunger on the train and grateful that he didn't eat all of his snacks he bought on the train like the others because of all of the room in his stomach. He was happy for the chance to stop worrying about his sorting for a time and only enjoy the sensation of eating warm and delightful food. He held no contempt for his mother's, and sometimes, father's cooking, but it could never compare to the roasts and vegetables he was devouring now.

After a time the entrees were replaced by sweets and fruits. Remus tried to will himself to try the different pies but allowed himself to fall short of trying everything as before; conceding in hopes of trying more at another time. Never before in his life did he believe he had ever felt as full as he did now. At Christmas dinners at his maternal grandparents house he felt bad if he felt like he took too much food from the table, feeling as though he was taking the option away for people to get more. At his paternal grandmother's home, he didn't eat a lot anyway because he hated it there and wanted to go as quickly as his parents would allow.

Remus wasn't granted a moment to relax and look around because he heard a girl scream from across the Great Hall. Sirius and James turned sharply around in the direction of the noise and Remus as well a few others stood up to see what was the matter. A fat ghost was floating literally in the middle of the Hufflepuff table, talking to the girl who had screamed. From his mother's descriptions, Remus knew the ghost to be the Fat Friar, one of Hogwart's friendliest ghosts.

Remus smiled at how aptly his mother described the Hufflepuff House ghost. He remained standing and tried to find the Grey Lady from Ravenclaw but did not see her. He turned his head to the old male voice he heard. He looked to his right and a silver ghost wearing what Remus knew to be Renaissance styled cloaks. He didn't know his name or story but he had to be the Gryffindor ghost.

"Sir Nearly Headless Nick!" James cried happily even though the ghost in question was still down the table talking merrily with the older students that he remembered. For a moment Remus was reminded that he was put into the wrong house; he knew nearly everything about the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw house ghosts respectively. He did not exude the same familiarity as James who knew the ghost. All Remus knew was that his own father did not like Gryffindor house having an official house ghost. If ghosts were once people who were afraid of death and lived on, then why would the house renown for bravery proudly show an example of cowardice? Remus sat down and tucked his cloak around him in preparation of meeting the house ghost in question.

Nearly Headless Nick talked warmly with the upper year students causing Remus to wonder if he spent a lot of time getting to know the house students like the Friar or if his interactions were only with a choice selection of students.

James was clearly anxious to meet the ghost for he vibrated up and down in his seat despite complaining about being too stuffed to move after his attack on the food placed around him. Sirius, for once since Remus had been properly introduced to them, did not share his friend's enthusiasm. Remus looked at the translucent silver form that was currently hovering as he talked to what now looked like the third and second years. For as much as Remus shared his father's inquiry on why Gryffindor had a sanctioned ghost in the first place, he felt sorry for the ghost he knew next to nothing about. How many times had the ghost seen students rise from first years to seventh years? Based on the ancient, ornate clothing styles, it had to have been a long time, reasoned Remus.

James, finally tired of waiting patiently for the ghost, shouted "Nearly Headless Nick! Hi!" The ghost quickly turned around and wore a scowl and grimace. His silver translucent form floated over to Remus's section of the Gryffindor table.

"Excuse me young master, my proper name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington of the royal Mimsy-Porpington family." After reciting the long name, the ghost readjusted the silver collar around his neck.

"My father told me all about you," James rattled on, unaware that he had committed a social faux pa against the resident ghost of Gryffindor.

Sir Nicholas seemed to brighten after hearing that James's father talked about him to his son. "Oh, really now? How fascinating. Pray tell, who was your father? Perhaps a noble Gryffindor as well?" The ghost floated down so that he was near Remus and Remus could feel the cold atmosphere near the ghost's form. Remus knew that the ghost was once human and still retained purely human traits as a ghost, but he still felt frightened to be near him.

"My father was Mr Edward James Potter and he was a Gryffindor student," James recited proudly, sticking his small chest out in pride. "He was a prefect beginning in his fifth year."

"My, my," Sir Nicholas mumbled and he screwed his eyes in concentration. "Edward Potter? A prefect you say?" James nodded enthusiastically. "He had black hair like you, correct?" James nodded his head even faster. "Ah, yes, that was quite a long time ago. Married another Gryffindor student as I recall, Charlotte? Who was younger than him by a small amount of years, yes?"

James nearly shouted from his enthusiasm, "Yes, that is my mum and dad! They said that you wouldn't remember but I told them that you would! I am so excited that you still remember them!

"What is your name, Master Potter?"

James couldn't smile any more if he tried, "My name is James Potter."

"What a lovely pleasure to meet you Master James Potter." Sir Nicholas paused, "I like to remember the students when they enter Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It helps to form connections with them during their stay for the next seven years." Sir Nicholas turned to stare down at Remus and Lily, "As well to offer a guiding hand if you are ever lost," he said with a smile and Remus tried to smile back. Lily, much like Remus, looked lost for words at having an actual conversation with a ghost. Remus figured that the Hogwarts representative had not filled her in on those being real in the wizarding world.

"It is always so lovely to see you newcomers. The Sorting is one of my favourite activities of the year," Sir Nicholas looked off as if he was remembering the past Sortings. "The energy is exhilarating to experience as an outsider, with all of the first-years nervous. The ghosts try to stay hidden away until we make our grand entrance, but we still like to peak whenever we had a new recruit to our house. I remember the Bloody Baron telling me that they had quite a lot more Slytherin students than he expected from recent year's past." Sir Nicholas turned his attentions to Sirius Black.

"Yes, Sirius Black. I know that name," if Sirius cared about that then he didn't show it. Instead he continued to look past the ghost. "The Bloody Barron was expecting to have you in his house like all of your other relatives."

"Some have been in Ravenclaw, thank you. Not everyone is in my family is in Slytherin," Sirius retorted in a cool, even tone.

"Yes, well it still caused quite a small scandal amongst the Bloody Barron and the older Slytherin students. I myself saw a few of the older Gryffindor students appear to be shocked when you were sorted into the noble house rather quickly."

"Yes, well," Sirius struggled on what to say to the ghost in return. "They will just have to get over it because I am sorted here and will stay right here until I leave Hogwarts." James stared at Sirius, concern clouding over his hazel eyes towards his friend. "Yes, everyone will have to get over it," Sirius's lowered voiced made it seem like he was no longer talking to the ghost but to himself.

Sir Nicholas turned around, smiling again towards Remus and Lily. "And whom do I hold the honour of introducing myself to?"

Remus looked at Lily and saw that she was looking at him too. Remus breathed in and turned back to the ghost, "My name is Remus Lupin," he offered so that Lily would not have to speak first if she felt uncomfortable with talking.

Lily quickly glanced at Remus but he acted like he did not notice it, "I-My name is Lily Evans."

Sir Nicholas nodded graciously and Mary McDonald and Peter introduced themselves to the ghost. "Like I said previously, it is a pleasure to know all of your young faces. It will be a pleasure to see you grow and prosper during this year and the six afterward. I hope all of you will contribute in winning the house cup this year, bless his heart the Fat Friar is the kindest man I have ever known, but he will not let me forget how Hufflepuff won last year." Sir Nicholas began to float away from the table but turned around as if he had forgotten something, "If any of you are in need of directions, I urge you all to ask me or any house ghost for assistance. I try my best to help not only Gryffindor students but also all the students when I can—that being the only noble thing to do after all.

Also, as a word of warning, if you see a poltergeist through the hall and you are alone, you will try your best to go another way, yes? Peeves, for that is his name, is generally harmless but is best left alone."

"He seemed nice," Peter offered to the group once the ghost left and everyone sat in silence.

"Yes, he seemed eager to help," Mary, who had been quiet until then, spoke.

"He remembered my parents, I knew he would," James commented.

"I've seen worse," were the only words Sirius mustered. James was not able to question his friend's opinion because at that time the Great Hall grew quiet again and Remus knew why once he looked toward the teachers' table. Headmaster Dumbledore had once again left his seat and now stood at a podium that was stationed where the Sorting Hat's stool was positioned earlier that night.

Once the hall was completely quiet, Dumbledore smiled. "Welcome all of you to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft of Wizardy, to all of our new first-years and to our returning students. I hope that regardless of what year you may be you enjoyed the start of term feast. Before I begin this year's school announcements, I would like to unite us all in the recitation of the school's song. We may have been sorted into four different houses, but we are all students of the same school and thus a family." Dumbledore cleared his throat and took out his wand from his sleeve, "There is no official melody to our school song, as many of you probably remember, rather I encourage everyone to sing it in the air of his or her favourite tune. If everyone could stand, please," Headmaster Dumbledore paused while the students in the Great Hall shuffled to a standing position. Remus scanned the teachers' table and saw that none of the teachers beside Hagrid looked pleased.

"One, two, one, two, three," Headmaster Dumbledore tapped the tip of his wand on the podium and words formed from the wand like lilac ribbon. Remus was unsure to sing, and chose merely to chant the words as he heard many of the older students do. James was shouting the words as fast as he could and Sirius had jumped aboard by doing the same. Together they managed to upset the others' tempo and beat.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something, please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

Remus frowned at the words, not being the style he had envisioned for one of the oldest wizarding school in Europe. His parents hadn't told him of the school having a song and he wondered if it was a new creation. Remus did not bother to finish singing/reciting the lyrics but remained standing as everyone else slowly ended the song. James and Sirius had finished the song in their fast and loud melody but had chosen to sing another verse of it so that they were the last ones to be yelling in the Great Hall. Remus blushed and looked down at his shoes when the people stared at them from the Gryffindor table and even the Hufflepuff table.

Headmaster Dumbledore waited until the noises died down and sent a nod from the podium to the direction of James and Sirius as they finished their third verse of the song after everyone had finished the verse for the first time. The words slowly faded away from existence like firework smoke in the sky. "Such an enjoyment to hear everyone united," Remus wasn't sure but it looked like Professor Dumbledore wiped something from his eye. "Even though we are divided by Houses, it is still important for us to be connected and united as a school. To our new students, welcome to the start of an exciting seven years. To our last year students, I trust you all to make this year your best.

"But as all our returning students remember, and our current first years are to find out, the start of term feast cannot end without the beginning of the school year announcements. I say with great joy that Professor Silvanus Kettleburn safely returned from Saint Mungo's Infirmary and is able to teach this year," Headmaster Dumbledore paused as the students clapped as an old man from the teachers' table waved his left hand that only had two fingers. "I would also like to congratulate this years selected Head Boy and Girl. May Mr Rufus Collins and Ms Melanie Hoffman please stand?" Remus, from his position, saw a top of a blonde head pop up from the far end of the hall and another with auburn hair. The headmaster waited until the clapping stopped before continuing, "Mr Collins has been an exemplary Slytherin student for the past six years and Ms Hoffman had showed herself to be an extraordinary Ravenclaw student. Please let us congratulate your peers once more," the students clapped again politely as well as the teachers.

"Furthermore with the announcements," the Head Boy and Girl sat back down at their tables, "some of our N.E.W.T. level students will be happy to hear that the school as acquired a rare specimen to be studied this year in advanced Herbology courses," Remus blanched and dug his fingernails into his palms. "In addition, let it be known for all students that the Forbidden Forest still remains out of bounds for unsupervised students and that the list of banned items has been updated by our excellent cleaner, Mr Filch.

"For the first time in Hogwarts history the school has the rare Whomping Willow imported from Macedonia. Now for many of you who may not know a lot about this particular tree, it is quite aggressive and should not be prompted by careless students. The tree is quite temperamental and shall not treat any student kindly. It is suggested that everyone stay a minimum of thirty feet away from it." Professor Dumbledore paused to let the students murmur about the room from this knowledge.

"How can a tree be aggressive?" Sirius wanted to know. Remus looked down, acting hard like he didn't know the truth about why the tree was planted during the summer. It was the passageway to the room he would be transforming in. He hadn't seen the tree himself; instead he stayed at his grandparents' home whilst his mother and father toured the school with Headmaster Dumbledore to see the precautions Dumbledore had in place for Remus's monthly transformations. He wanted to tour the school with his parents over the summer but his father and mother had insisted that he wait until the start of term so he would be like the other students and able to experience the awe and wonder with his classmates.

"That concludes the announcements, and I am sure nearly all of you are exhausted from today's journey. You are all dismissed. Prefects, lead the first-years to their dorms for the first time. Enjoy this year at Hogwarts!" He finished and in a grandiose fashion he shot dazzling fireworks from his wand that danced through the enchanted ceiling and exploded in the sky in an array of neon colours.

The benches in the Great Hal scraped the stone floor as everyone stood up to leave. Remus stood at the table like the other first years around him, looking around for any sign of instructions.


	9. Scene Nine

_****A note from the Authoress, thank you all for keeping up with this story and commenting your thoughts. It means more than anyone could ever know. _

**Scene Ten**

Remus's shoes had been thrown over by his bed half an hour ago. He sat next to Sirius on the far end of James's bed and watched the boys talk again about classes. This time they were discussing which ones they thought were going to be their favourites.

"Transfiguration seems the most interesting to me," James commented as he leaned back on his headboard. "Plus that is what Ollivander told me that was what my wand was best at."

"Defence Against the Dark Arts is my vote," Sirius said to them both.

Remus let his eyelids drop slowly down but he jerked his head up when Sirius said his name, "Remus, you've been pretty quiet. You're already quite the Ravenclaw boy, I'm sure you're looking forward to some classes."

"Uhm, I'm really interested in charms and potions." Remus straightened up as he talked, "I've learnt a few charms from my parents but I haven't done much potion work before; so that will be interesting endeavour."

James and Sirius nodded at his response, "Potions should be fun," James replied. "I wonder—" he stopped as a deep yawn overcame him. "I wonder what our schedule will be like."

Remus fought the urge to yawn alongside Sirius but couldn't help but wish to go to bed. He didn't allow himself to refuse James's invitation an hour ago to sit on his bed and talk with him and Sirius despite how tired he already was. He was in no position to ignore a social invitation and since James and Sirius were both being nice to him even after him being cross to them both, Remus felt obligated to sit with them even though he hadn't talked all that much.

"Maybe Peter had the right idea about passing out as soon as we came up here," said Sirius. Remus looked up at Sirius, hoping that this was a sign that his wish would be granted.

"Yeah, we will have a pretty big day with classes tomorrow," James answered with a yawn. "We should probably go to bed," Remus looked down at his watch and saw that it had just turned midnight. Technically a new day. He couldn't help but calculate the numbers in his head: thirteen days until his next transformation.

"That settles it, I'm tired as Merlin," Sirius hopped off the bed and Remus followed him by gently climbing off.

"G'night, boys," James said to them both as they stood near the bed. Remus wished them both a good night as well and turned around to his own bed. Sirius and James both had no problems with changing in front of each other but Remus still felt embarrassed by the scars that had accumulated on his torso and legs from years of transformations. Instead he grabbed his father's letter from atop his bed and blew out the candle on his desk before climbing in underneath the sheets and under his grandmother's quilt.

"Welcome to Gryffindor," he heard James call out from his own bed across the dorm. Sirius called out a muffled response as Remus closed the tapestries around his bed. Even though it was later and he was tired, he placed his father's letter safely beside him.

He quickly removed his trousers under the combined safety of his drawn bed curtains and the security from being covered until three layers of fabric; content in sleeping in his boxers for the night.

When he no longer heard any sheet shuffling from the other beds, Remus kicked the sheets off from around his legs and moved into a sitting position in his bed. He brought out his wand from underneath his pillows and whispered, "Lumos." A small beam of light flickered from the tip of his wand but went out a moment later. "Lumos," he whispered again, hoping that James and Sirius were asleep. He sighed contently when the light emitting from his wand stayed on. He set the wand in front of him so that the soft glow of artificial light lit the thick unaddressed envelope in his hand. He bit his lip as he slipped his right index finger underneath fold of the envelope, breaking the seal.

Treating the letter as the most fragile object he had ever owned, Remus slipped out the sheets of paper his father had written and unfolded the parchment. Before allowing himself to read the letter Remus looked up and tried to make out any signs of life outside of his four poster bed. Happy to only hear different paces of deep breathing he squinted his eyes to make out the tiny impeccable script of his father.

_Dearest Remus,_

_I trust that you have followed my wishes and opened this only after your sorting. I know you have heard what I am about to write you numerous times before from your mother and me, but I cannot help but stress to you how very proud we are of you. And this is not just about being sorted into whichever house you are now a part of; this is about showing bravery by going to Hogwarts in the first place. _

_I have known you your entire life and you still seem to astound me in so many ways. It would have been understandable for you to wish to remain at home as our previous plans had been, but instead you do what perhaps was the most difficult decision you have had to make thus far in your life, and decided to leave home to attend school. It certainly would have been the easy decision for you to stay with your mother and me; but perhaps no great actions arise from what is considered easy and safe. _

_Whichever House you may have been sorted into tonight, I know the Sorting Hat has chosen wisely. If ever you feel a moment of doubt, remember that you were selected to be in that particular house above all the others. Whenever you feel discouraged by standards you feel you cannot meet, take a moment to reflect when the Sorting Hat decided which House you would prosper in the most. You will have challenges, moments of self-doubt— moments that cause you to think whether you belong or not. And that is okay. Problems cause innovation and thought and action as a catalyst for change. But when you have these moments, remember that you were selected to belong to a specific culture that has an outstanding legacy. _

_Remus, I do admit, it will be strange not having your presence in the house. But I know as a father that I will have to not be selfish and allow you to grow into your own person. My concession is that I know you will have the opportunity to become your own person with wizards and witches your own age. I know without a doubt that you are going to meet the greatest people throughout your entire duration at school. You will meet people that you will learn to dislike, you will meet people that you will learn to love; regardless of how people fall into these two groups, these are the people that will shape and morph your life. You will be challenged to grow and evolve, and I encourage you to explore this time of who you are and what you stand for in life-to question what you are willing to fight and change. There is so much more than lessons at Hogwarts._

_Headmaster Dumbledore has given you such a privilege for you to experience the joy of friendship and camaraderie that you could have never felt at home. The people you may have possibly met even on the train, tonight, in your dormitory with the other first years, or even the people in your classes tomorrow or in three years, will change your life. I do not know their names, but I know these people have the power to change your life into something spectacular. _

_I encourage you to give your classmates a chance. I know your mother has drilled into you the importance of not telling anyone of your circumstance. And I know that you have not had the best relationships with wizards in my family because of your circumstances, but do not let this stop you from getting close with people. You are extremely adept at being by yourself, and I know it will be easy for you to only concern yourself with your studies-but please believe me Remus when I say that studies and lessons will not help you when you have trouble. I was convinced that you would not be able to attend Hogwarts because of my actions at work that prompted the attack of you when you were four. It has pained me so and the guilt has overwhelmed me on many occasions. As a result, I feel as a father I have encouraged your recluse activity too well. Which is not to say that there is anything wrong in valuing the art of self-reflection and realising the importance of isolation._

_Allow yourself to become a presence in people's lives and allow people to become a fixture in your life. It may be difficult in the beginning, but I am confident in you to make true friends and make yourself belong. You have not had the best proof of this in your life just yet, with your limited exposure to strangers, but there is goodness in people that you should always believe in. It may be hard for you to see, but I assure you that overall, people are good. _

_If you find my words hard to believe, for I can imagine that at eleven years of age that it might be near impossible for you to think of your later life, trust in my own experiences. I was a Ravenclaw prefect in my seventh year when I met your mother in her fifth year as a Hufflepuff student. I was busy on my rounds at the beginning of the year when I met her in the hallway trying to give directions to a first year on how to get to the astronomy tower. I don't remember seeing anyone lovelier than your mother that day, and I know I made a fool of myself by her presence. Suddenly I did not know how to talk or walk properly. After that chance encounter I volunteered to help with the Hufflepuff prefects whenever I could and tried my best to become a presence in your mother's life. And somehow, this extremely kind and accepting girl saw something in me allowed me into her existence—and as a result, changed my life. _

_I urge you to allow yourself to be close with people because a few will become close with you. That is why I am going to go against your mother's advice; I give you permission to tell people about your condition. I know that is a terrifying thought, especially since you have had first hand experience of people treating you differently because they know of your circumstance. But I do not expect you to tell anyone this year, or even in the next two years. I merely feel like as you become close with people and them to you, that you need to know that you are allowed to be as honest with people as they are to you. You have been dealt a difficult card for your life, and I hold all responsibility for that as much as it pains me to know that I caused you to have this condition. But there will be people who will love you and continue to love you even after you tell them. _

_But this is all speculation on my part because of my particular experience at Hogwarts. You will know within your own heart if you are at the point to begin thinking that you could confide your secret to someone. _

_I cannot help but tell you again how proud I am of you to accepting your place at Hogwarts. _

_And if it turns out that it isn't a right fit, then that is an accomplishment in its own right because you have come to realise that fact only through giving yourself a risk . And that is the most important thing of all; you allowed yourself the possibility to fail. _


	10. Scene Ten

_****A note from the Authoress, thank you all for keeping up with this story and commenting your thoughts. It means more than anyone could ever know. _

**Scene Ten**

Remus's shoes had been thrown over by his bed half an hour ago. He sat next to Sirius on the far end of James's bed and watched the boys talk again about classes. This time they were discussing which ones they thought were going to be their favourites.

"Transfiguration seems the most interesting to me," James commented as he leaned back on his headboard. "Plus that is what Ollivander told me that was what my wand was best at."

"Defence Against the Dark Arts is my vote," Sirius said to them both.

Remus let his eyelids drop slowly down but he jerked his head up when Sirius said his name, "Remus, you've been pretty quiet. You're already quite the Ravenclaw boy, I'm sure you're looking forward to some classes."

"Uhm, I'm really interested in charms and potions." Remus straightened up as he talked, "I've learnt a few charms from my parents but I haven't done much potion work before; so that will be interesting endeavour."

James and Sirius nodded at his response, "Potions should be fun," James replied. "I wonder—" he stopped as a deep yawn overcame him. "I wonder what our schedule will be like."

Remus fought the urge to yawn alongside Sirius but couldn't help but wish to go to bed. He didn't allow himself to refuse James's invitation an hour ago to sit on his bed and talk with him and Sirius despite how tired he already was. He was in no position to ignore a social invitation and since James and Sirius were both being nice to him even after him being cross to them both, Remus felt obligated to sit with them even though he hadn't talked all that much.

"Maybe Peter had the right idea about passing out as soon as we came up here," said Sirius. Remus looked up at Sirius, hoping that this was a sign that his wish would be granted.

"Yeah, we will have a pretty big day with classes tomorrow," James answered with a yawn. "We should probably go to bed," Remus looked down at his watch and saw that it had just turned midnight. Technically a new day. He couldn't help but calculate the numbers in his head: thirteen days until his next transformation.

"That settles it, I'm tired as Merlin," Sirius hopped off the bed and Remus followed him by gently climbing off.

"G'night, boys," James said to them both as they stood near the bed. Remus wished them both a good night as well and turned around to his own bed. Sirius and James both had no problems with changing in front of each other but Remus still felt embarrassed by the scars that had accumulated on his torso and legs from years of transformations. Instead he grabbed his father's letter from atop his bed and blew out the candle on his desk before climbing in underneath the sheets and under his grandmother's quilt.

"Welcome to Gryffindor," he heard James call out from his own bed across the dorm. Sirius called out a muffled response as Remus closed the tapestries around his bed. Even though it was later and he was tired, he placed his father's letter safely beside him.

He quickly removed his trousers under the combined safety of his drawn bed curtains and the security from being covered until three layers of fabric; content in sleeping in his boxers for the night.

When he no longer heard any sheet shuffling from the other beds, Remus kicked the sheets off from around his legs and moved into a sitting position in his bed. He brought out his wand from underneath his pillows and whispered, "Lumos." A small beam of light flickered from the tip of his wand but went out a moment later. "Lumos," he whispered again, hoping that James and Sirius were asleep. He sighed contently when the light emitting from his wand stayed on. He set the wand in front of him so that the soft glow of artificial light lit the thick unaddressed envelope in his hand. He bit his lip as he slipped his right index finger underneath fold of the envelope, breaking the seal.

Treating the letter as the most fragile object he had ever owned, Remus slipped out the sheets of paper his father had written and unfolded the parchment. Before allowing himself to read the letter Remus looked up and tried to make out any signs of life outside of his four poster bed. Happy to only hear different paces of deep breathing he squinted his eyes to make out the tiny impeccable script of his father.

_Dearest Remus,_

_I trust that you have followed my wishes and opened this only after your sorting. I know you have heard what I am about to write you numerous times before from your mother and me, but I cannot help but stress to you how very proud we are of you. And this is not just about being sorted into whichever house you are now a part of; this is about showing bravery by going to Hogwarts in the first place. _

_I have known you your entire life and you still seem to astound me in so many ways. It would have been understandable for you to wish to remain at home as our previous plans had been, but instead you do what perhaps was the most difficult decision you have had to make thus far in your life, and decided to leave home to attend school. It certainly would have been the easy decision for you to stay with your mother and me; but perhaps no great actions arise from what is considered easy and safe. _

_Whichever House you may have been sorted into tonight, I know the Sorting Hat has chosen wisely. If ever you feel a moment of doubt, remember that you were selected to be in that particular house above all the others. Whenever you feel discouraged by standards you feel you cannot meet, take a moment to reflect when the Sorting Hat decided which House you would prosper in the most. You will have challenges, moments of self-doubt— moments that cause you to think whether you belong or not. And that is okay. Problems cause innovation and thought and action as a catalyst for change. But when you have these moments, remember that you were selected to belong to a specific culture that has an outstanding legacy. _

_Remus, I do admit, it will be strange not having your presence in the house. But I know as a father that I will have to not be selfish and allow you to grow into your own person. My concession is that I know you will have the opportunity to become your own person with wizards and witches your own age. I know without a doubt that you are going to meet the greatest people throughout your entire duration at school. You will meet people that you will learn to dislike, you will meet people that you will learn to love; regardless of how people fall into these two groups, these are the people that will shape and morph your life. You will be challenged to grow and evolve, and I encourage you to explore this time of who you are and what you stand for in life-to question what you are willing to fight and change. There is so much more than lessons at Hogwarts._

_Headmaster Dumbledore has given you such a privilege for you to experience the joy of friendship and camaraderie that you could have never felt at home. The people you may have possibly met even on the train, tonight, in your dormitory with the other first years, or even the people in your classes tomorrow or in three years, will change your life. I do not know their names, but I know these people have the power to change your life into something spectacular. _

_I encourage you to give your classmates a chance. I know your mother has drilled into you the importance of not telling anyone of your circumstance. And I know that you have not had the best relationships with wizards in my family because of your circumstances, but do not let this stop you from getting close with people. You are extremely adept at being by yourself, and I know it will be easy for you to only concern yourself with your studies-but please believe me Remus when I say that studies and lessons will not help you when you have trouble. I was convinced that you would not be able to attend Hogwarts because of my actions at work that prompted the attack of you when you were four. It has pained me so and the guilt has overwhelmed me on many occasions. As a result, I feel as a father I have encouraged your recluse activity too well. Which is not to say that there is anything wrong in valuing the art of self-reflection and realising the importance of isolation._

_Allow yourself to become a presence in people's lives and allow people to become a fixture in your life. It may be difficult in the beginning, but I am confident in you to make true friends and make yourself belong. You have not had the best proof of this in your life just yet, with your limited exposure to strangers, but there is goodness in people that you should always believe in. It may be hard for you to see, but I assure you that overall, people are good. _

_If you find my words hard to believe, for I can imagine that at eleven years of age that it might be near impossible for you to think of your later life, trust in my own experiences. I was a Ravenclaw prefect in my seventh year when I met your mother in her fifth year as a Hufflepuff student. I was busy on my rounds at the beginning of the year when I met her in the hallway trying to give directions to a first year on how to get to the astronomy tower. I don't remember seeing anyone lovelier than your mother that day, and I know I made a fool of myself by her presence. Suddenly I did not know how to talk or walk properly. After that chance encounter I volunteered to help with the Hufflepuff prefects whenever I could and tried my best to become a presence in your mother's life. And somehow, this extremely kind and accepting girl saw something in me allowed me into her existence—and as a result, changed my life. _

_I urge you to allow yourself to be close with people because a few will become close with you. That is why I am going to go against your mother's advice; I give you permission to tell people about your condition. I know that is a terrifying thought, especially since you have had first hand experience of people treating you differently because they know of your circumstance. But I do not expect you to tell anyone this year, or even in the next two years. I merely feel like as you become close with people and them to you, that you need to know that you are allowed to be as honest with people as they are to you. You have been dealt a difficult card for your life, and I hold all responsibility for that as much as it pains me to know that I caused you to have this condition. But there will be people who will love you and continue to love you even after you tell them. _

_But this is all speculation on my part because of my particular experience at Hogwarts. You will know within your own heart if you are at the point to begin thinking that you could confide your secret to someone. _

_I cannot help but tell you again how proud I am of you to accepting your place at Hogwarts. _

_And if it turns out that it isn't a right fit, then that is an accomplishment in its own right because you have come to realise that fact only through giving yourself a risk . And that is the most important thing of all; you allowed yourself the possibility to fail. _


	11. Scene Eleven

**Scene Eleven**

Remus opened his eyes with a start, having been roused from his sleep by a reoccurring vibration on his arm. Eyes still groggy from sleep and his mind still numb from dreaming, Remus lifted his left arm to see what was the matter and was surprised to see the wristwatch alternately glowing on and off. With his other arm he pushed in the knob on the side which caused the vibrations to cease and the glowing face went back to show the current time of half seven. His mind gradually regained function and Remus realised that he was not in his own bed back home. He sat up and studied the maroon tapestries that isolated himself from his surroundings. Gryffindor, he thought and his mind ran through all of the events from last night that brought him to that exact spot of sleeping in a shared room boys named James, Sirius, and Peter

Remus began to feel a nice sense of excitement at the prospect of going to classes this morning. Remembering that the Gryffindor prefect told the first years that breakfast began at eight and their head of house, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall would be handing out schedules. Remus slid himself from underneath his covers. Still in isolation from the safety of his drawn curtains, Remus made his bed as quiet as possible and peeked out in the room. The candles in the room had extinguished but morning sunlight flooded the room. Remus craned his neck and saw that Sirius had his bed curtains drawn shut as well. Hearing no sounds except for heavy breathing, Remus felt it was safe to slip out in the open. Feeling silly with only his boxers on, Remus slipped on his folded trousers that he wore yesterday and belted them to his waist. Looking around to make sure that James's curtains were still drawn shut around his bed, Remus managed to rip his shirt over his head quietly. He felt vulnerable with his torso bear, revealing a long history of pale scars. He silently pulled open a drawer and pulled a short sleeve shirt on, feeling foolish for pre-emptively taking his nightshirt off without having another shirt near by. James could have easily seen his bare back and possibly ask about the scars from his past transformations—and how would he have been able to answer? Remus unfolded his cloak from last night and put it on, placing his wand in the inner chest pocket for safekeeping. He looked around for his trainers and remembered that Sirius had thrown them from James's bed last night during their late night discussion. Remus crept on the cool stone floor around his bed until he found the pair and slipped them on. He had only wasted a few minutes getting dressed quickly and didn't want to risk the possibility of waking up his dorm mates as he prepared to go to class.

Remus looked around the circular room and grasped that there was no washroom for them to use; he hadn't noticed it missing last night when he entered the room. Remembering that there was not one located in the common room down in the main section of the Gryffindor common room he predicted that one was bound to be located somewhere in the boy's dormitory. Remus tiptoed out of the room and closed the door softly behind him as he stood on the landing outside of their room. He remembered there was not one two levels down in the base of the boys' dormitory and decided to follow the spiral staircase upward.

He passed the fourth level dormitory and heard the deep laughter of older boys. He couldn't hear any bits of the conversation but the laughter and giggling from whatever was going on in that room crept underneath the doorframe. Remus slowed down on his way upward, reading the sign that read 'Seventh Years.' On the fifth landing there was no doorframe but rather just a stone arch that led into the washroom. Remus was happy to see that no one else was in it, which allowed him time to explore it without feeling self-conscious of his presence in this unknown territory. He wasn't sure which was scarier: if he slept one whole night at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or that he was exploring Gryffindor territory before the start of class.

In the spacious washroom, a line of porcelain sinks were place on one stone wall with mirrors framed by bronze fixtures over each one. Opposite of this were individual stalls next to a half dozen urinals in the corner. The bathroom was split into different rooms by another wall with a larger arch that acted as an opening. Remus crept through this, confident to quench his curiosity because he was alone. In this section of the washroom was the showering area with a similar layout as the previous section. Instead of stalls were larger stalls for showering, complete with a selection of soaps and shampoos inside each stall. Sinks lined one wall and closets with an array of different coloured plush towels that were the softest Remus had ever felt. Next to the closets of towels were small bins with an assortment of basic razors and shaving creams. He rummaged through them for no reason, just interested in being able to have access to one even though he was in no need to shave like his father. The strangest thing about the washrooms, Remus suddenly thought, was that they were square in shape even though everything else in the tower was circular. He could imagine this part of the tower suddenly being square and wondered why it was charmed to be a different shape. He wandered over to the windows and looked down at the higher view of the castle grounds, seeing the six rings of the school's Quidditch quad in the distance. He walked past the laundry chute and the empty metal rubbish bins back into the first part of the washroom, satisfied in beginning his journey of knowing where everything was.

A group of three fifth year boys walked in only in boxers and t-shirts. When they saw Remus they stopped their chattering and one of the elder boys smirked at him dressed in his uniform. Remus quickly bypassed them and walked through the archway back to the safety in his own dormitory but not fast enough for him not to hear one remark on how short the first-years seemed to be this year. Remus bounded down the stone steps until he was at his own landing and creaked open the wooden door to his room.

He should have expected the other boys to be awake or at least in the process of waking, but he was still surprised to see both James and Sirius standing beside their individual beds. James was in the process of tying a tie around his collar but was failing, Sirius was tying the laces on his shoes, Peter was still sound asleep. Both James and Sirius stopped what they were doing to look at him as he entered the room.

"Good morning, mate," James said, his voice cracking slightly from sleep.

"I figured you were asleep in your bed or something," noted Sirius. Remus looked to his bed and how his tapestries were still drawn shut.

"Where'd you go?" James inquired, giving up on his tie and throwing it into his open trunk.

"I found the washroom—"

"Blimey, where is it then?" James asked suddenly, his eyes slightly wider than before.

"The fifth floor, I believe," Remus said with his eyes looking at the stone ceiling as he thought over what landing it was on.

"Fifth floor," James ran past Remus, muttering the phrase under his breath as he thrust open the door. They could hear his frantic footsteps echo in the stairwell as he raced to the fifth floor until the dorm room's door slammed shut. Remus, still standing near the doorway, looked at Sirius.

"What's the guy's name?" Sirius asked as he stood up from the floor and motioned his head in the direction of Peter's bed.

"Peter," Remus answered, hoping that Sirius remembered his own name.

"Huh, yeah, that sound's right." Sirius grabbed his wand from his desk and walked with Remus to his bed. "I'm thinking about sending him a jinx to wake him up—nothing too bad, don't worry," Sirius added as Remus flashed him an unfiltered look of surprise. Remus turned his back to Sirius as he started to pack for his classes in a used dragon skin leather messenger bag. He didn't like or approve of Sirius being mean to someone who had done nothing wrong and for picking on someone who clearly was an easy target. He heard Sirius start to say the beginning of the promised jinx and Remus made the quick decision to drop the two books he was holding.

Peter shot up from bed and looked around crazily, "I'm so sorry," Remus apologised, sending a pleading look to Sirius and Peter hoping to get the intended results of making Sirius believe he was sorry for messing up his joke and for Peter to think that he was sorry for waking him up in such a brash fashion.

"I feel so much better now," everyone turned his attention to James entering the dorm, smiling contently to himself. He saw everyone standing near Peter's bed and stopped, "What I miss?" he asked innocently.

"I was just about to wake Peter up for class," Sirius answered honestly, sending a grin to Peter who had left his bed and was in the process of changing shirts and robes.

"That's a good idea, does anyone know what time it is?" James asked, beginning to pack his rucksack with quills and ink bottles.

Remus looked to his watch when no one else answered, "It just turned eight sharp," he answered from across the room.

"Shall we all go to breakfast together?" James asked the group. Remus nodded along, figuring that it was better than going alone, as Sirius and Peter audibly answered. "Is everyone ready?" Remus nodded again as everyone answered an affirmation. Remus slung his bag across his shoulders and followed Sirius and James out of the door with Peter following him. In single file fashion they clopped down the staircase to the common room where a few students were sitting around talking. James held the portrait open for everyone as they filed out of the hidden entrance out onto the seventh floor of Hogwarts.

"Does anyone particularly know where the Great Hall is again?" Sirius asked when no one made a move after they were all out. Remus stared around to find that they had no older students to follow.

"All I know is that we go down all those bloody stairs and hope that they don't move," James announced when no one answered Sirius's question.

"No," Sirius groaned, "Don't mention stairs to me. Are my legs the only ones that are hurting because of last night?"

"Don't be such a nancy. C'mon everyone," James took over the leadership position again. "We know that it is downstairs somewhere so let's go," Remus stuck his hands in his robe pockets and followed Sirius and James out of the seventh floor entrance. He walked in step with Peter as they made their way down the stone staircases, which were thankfully motionless. From Remus's watch they had fifty minutes until nine o'clock, he felt confident in the group's leisurely pace for them to receive their schedules and still make it on time to their first class. Remus smiled to himself as he anticipated going through his first day's schedule. He had looked through all of his school books and found something worthwhile in each one; this was the real reason that he wanted to go to Hogwarts so badly, to learn past the simple wand work he picked up from home and to become as accomplished as his father.

Deep in his own thoughts as they traversed down the staircases, Remus didn't hear Sirius call out his and Peter's name. Remus broke his stride and slowed to a halt on a step and looked over his shoulder, surprised to see that James and Sirius weren't in front of him, but rather standing on the first floor's landing.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

Remus looked around the staircase; his eyebrows furrowed in. "The Great Hall? This is only the first floor, we have to go to the ground floor to get to it."

James shook his head, "No, I don't think so. That's going to lead us to the basement or dungeons," he said in an objective tone. "I think it's definitely this way; I remember from last night."

Remus remembered from last night as well and knew that they climbed seven flights up, and this morning they had only climbed down six flights. He stood on the staircase, not moving next to Peter.

Perhaps James was expecting him to follow him without question for he turned to Sirius and asked him where he thought the Great Hall was.

"Look, man, I really don't know. You say it's on this floor, right?" James nodded, "And you think it's one below?" Remus nodded. "So let's check this floor out and if it turns out that it isn't the right one then we'll follow Remus's plan."

"Okay, fine" Remus answered flatly because he knew where the actual Great Hall was but didn't want to break away from the group. James brightened at his content and Remus faked a smile to make up from his dull tone and backtracked up the stairs to the landing. He readjusted his bag that had been another gift from his father and followed James's footsteps down the corridor. Remus did not know where James was leading them but he knew it wasn't in the direction of the Great Hall. There were no other signs of life except for the moving subjects in the picture frames. They passed through two arched hallways and turned left down a corridor that was lined with arched windows that overlooked the school's lake. Remembering his father's words of advice to belong on the group and allowing himself to be close to people Remus held his tongue from his livid thoughts. They had wasted ten minutes just exploring this well lit floor, which might come become useful if they had a class on the first floor, but they were due to receive their schedules.

"I don't remember seeing any of this," Peter said to James nervously.

"I hate to say this, too, but this looks like nothing that we saw last night on our way to the dormitory," Sirius mirrored Peter's concern. Remus smiled to himself for being right and mentally congratulated himself on knowing a little bit about the layout of the castle.

"That's just because we used a different staircase. Remember how the staircases moved? It's around here somewhere, we just need to find where we were last night." Remus frowned as James insisted on being right and continued down another corridor. He remained silent as he fell in line behind Peter and after awhile noticed a glistening on the stone floor. Remus stopped walking and looked down at the sheen on the floor, discovering that it was a thin layer of water. He caught up to Peter's coattails and noticed how the layer of water deepened the further they went.

James stopped in the middle of the hallway, lifting one foot off the floor, "Thirty points to Gryffindor for anyone who knows why there is a flood in this corridor."

"Because this is the way to the underground entrance to the lake?" Sirius answered as he began to stomp in the inches deep layer of water.

"I say we follow it and find out," James countered with excitement in his voice.

This was more than Remus was willing to take, it was one thing to follow James down the wrong floor, but it was another to be late to receiving their schedules and their morning class. Remus finally spoke up, "This is not the way to the Great Hall. I'm going to go back while I still have time and get my schedule." Sirius stopped stomping around at the start of his words; James and Peter turned back to look at him. Remus bit his lower lip anxiously, waiting for the others' reactions.

James breathed out a heavy sigh, kicking the pool of water. "I was just beginning to think the same thing." He moved his school bag from one shoulder to the other one and looked up to face Remus. "I'm sorry," he professed to Remus as he raised his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I really thought this was the way," he sent a half-smile to Remus. "At least we know that the Great Hall is _definitely_ not on the first floor. Shall we try out the ground floor now?"

Remus nodded and looked to his watch to find that it was half eight. He looked up and was surprised to see that everyone was looking at him, expecting him to lead. "Uhm," he cleared his throat, "to the ground floor." He turned around on his heel and began to retrace their path and made it back to the grand staircase in less than five minutes; reworking their fifteen-minute detour caused by James in more than half the time.

Remus felt his nerves begin to tingle from his fingers to his arms as he led the group successfully down the ground floor where he saw a multitude of students from every house walking around. Already he recognised some of the portraits from last night and the large ceiling. The atmosphere on the first floor was stale and cold whereas the atmosphere here was dynamic and warm. Perhaps that was because Remus knew he was right in his direction skills, or perhaps it was caused by number of elder students clustered around the corridor leading to the huge oak doors to the Great Hall. Remus looked over his shoulder and felt a stab of guilt in being right because it meant that James was wrong. Remus had known this boy with the crazy messed hair for less than a day but he knew that he seemed to like being the confidently cool leader.

"Good going, mate," Sirius slapped the back of Remus's left shoulder as he walked past him in favour of the Gryffindor table laden with breakfast foods. Remus allowed Peter and James to walk past him as he held open the door and smiled at James, hoping that it would express his conflicted feelings of being right. The Great Hall seemed to be bigger this morning from last night because of everyone not being there as before. Remus followed James to the Gryffindor table and sat down near the back of the Great Hall away from the teachers' platform. He looked down at the food in front of him of different Danishes and a dozen differently cooked eggs and meats

As he alternatively nibbled on bread and ladled what turned out to be a kind of apple-flavoured oatmeal Remus looked around the Great Hall. Everyone seemed to know each other, he thought as he watched the groups of different students talk and eat together happily. He envied how at ease everyone older seemed to act and he wondered if he would be able to feel that way here at the school. The boys around him stayed quiet as they ate and Remus wasn't sure if it was because they were nervous about the first day of classes or because they didn't have a close group of friends that they felt like they could joke around with yet.

Remus froze with a piece of toast near his mouth as he watched Deputy Headmistress McGonagall make her way down the Gryffindor table, handing out schedules. With ease she recognised the students of her house and spent no time in handing out the different timetables to the clusters of students sitting sporadically up and down the long wooden table. In the matter of a few minutes the professor wearing another set of emerald cloaks matched with an emerald witches hat made her way to where Remus and other first year boys sat.

Professor McGonagall stopped near Peter and looked them all over, as if she was sizing them up and gathering their potential in one fatal sweep of a glance. She looked at the different leaves of parchment in her hands. "Mr Black," she called out in a sharp voice. She looked Sirius up and down as he stood and accepted the schedule. "Mr Lupin," she questioned the group with the raised brow. Remus dropped his toast and fumbled his hands with his cloth napkin before timidly raising his hand. He stood while placing the cloth on the tabletop and grabbed the scroll. Before he opened the scroll tied with ribbon that spelled out his full name he was surprised to see the deputy headmistress nod her head ever so slightly in his direction before calling out Peter's name. His head of house would have to know about his lycanthropy, he reminded himself. He looked up at the teacher who was now handing out a schedule to James. Nervousness stiffened his spine in front of the authority figure from not knowing if she had known about his secret yet. He probably wouldn't have begun to question the prospect until she had nodded to him and no one else whom he was sitting with. It also did not help that by titles alone, Remus knew that the woman worked directly with Headmaster Dumbledore. Remus stared down in his lap, playing with the ends of the ribbon with his fingers, ignoring the others.

He bit the inside of his cheek in fear of the prospect of one of his teachers knowing his condition as he slipped off the ribbon of his rolled schedule. His eyes devoured the list of his courses. In fine script listed his classes by day and time and he ran his finger down the page under his name until he saw his Wednesday classes. He smiled as he read that Herbology in Greenhouse One was his first class at nine. His mouth twitched into a frown as he laid down his timetable on the table to his right hand to push his cloak sleeve from his left arm to look at the time. By his watch he had fifteen minutes to get to class and he was happy that he packed all of his required reading in anticipation of not knowing how his schedule would read out.

"I've got Herbology as my first class," Peter announced to the group. All of the boys looked up from their isolation as Peter's pronouncement.

"We all do," Sirius said in an all-knowing tone. "We all have the same classes since we're all in the same house."

James rolled his scroll and retied it before he stuffed it in his inner chest pocket of his cloak. "Greenhouse One," he ruminated, "so we know we don't have to climb any stairs upwards," and smiled as if that knowledge was an accomplishment on his part. Remus forgot his uneaten food and picked up his parchment and placed it carefully in his cloak pocket.

"There is only fifteen minutes until it is scheduled to begin," Remus spoke as he tucked away his scroll in his pocket and standing.

"Wait, mate," James spoke out against his leaving. "I'll go as well," he stood and grabbed his school bag. "Anyone else going?"

Sirius was already grabbing his gear and Peter obediently pushed his remaining food in his mouth and stood to leave. "Let's see if we can find the greenhouse then," James said merrily with a grin send in Remus's direction. Just as before, Remus had not expected to be made leader of the group and stared mystified at the standing first year boys before realising they were waiting for him to make the move.

"Oh," he said rather dumbly out loud to himself before turning around and began to walk to the doors out of the Great Hall. James jogged up to his stride and wordlessly paced himself to match Remus's own. Remus sided a glance at James and wondered what his deal was; for as much as he seemed to enjoy leading, he didn't seem to mind it when Remus was put in the awkward position to act as tour guide. Remus followed the pathway caused by others leaving the castle interior outside and held open the front doors of the school for the other Gryffindor first-years.


	12. Scene Twelve

**Scene Twelve**

Remus stopped outside and looked down the cascading lawn, trying to remember what his mother said about the head teacher of Hufflepuff. She was a merry short and stout woman of the name Professor Sprout and loved to work in the greenhouses even when she didn't have to teach. From his schedule he knew they shared the class with other Hufflepuff first years so he ruled out following a group of older looking students down the left slope of the castle grounds and ruled out in going in the opposite direction. He curled one hand into a fist so that it was hidden in the fabric of a cloak sleeve as he picked at the skin around his fingernails nervously, hoping he was leading the pack to the right location.

He hated to think that he was acting like James earlier this morning in assuming where to go. Remus tried to think over what his mother had told him about her former house, knowing that she worked afterschool in the greenhouses with Professor Sprout in her later years at Hogwarts. She had told him that she hated it when it rained because they were located in the opposite area of the castle. Remus looked behind his shoulder as he led the group of equally clueless boys away from the castle, hoping that he was remembering his mother correctly. He wished he had been given a map or asked his mother and father exactly where his classes were located around the school but knew he would only have known to ask in hindsight. He sighed and nervously twitched his heavy shoulder bag to the other side of his body as he saw the peak of an iron point in the distance. He picked up his pace and wandered up the small hill where the roof of the building in question revealed more of itself. Rising before him and the other Gryffindor boys was the iron-gated entrance to the Green houses.

"Ugh," Remus heard Sirius grunted. "I was hoping we would never find the Herbology classes in favour of playing in the water flooded hallway again," he grumbled. "Herbology isn't going to be interesting unless we are dealing with extremely dangerous plants," the boy stated in a matter-fact tone of voice.

"Think about the possibilities though," he heard James counter in his hopeful tone, "we are in _greenhouse_. Which means that we don't have desks, so we aren't going to be stuck behind tables and have to worry about taking super detailed theory notes." Remus opened the rusty iron-gate and walked down the dirt lane lined with six different greenhouses. He headed for the closest one on his left and allowed himself to smile outwardly at it being the correct one. A copper plant holder with some sort of tall, flowering organism held the door open. Even though it was only midmorning, the temperature in the greenhouse made Remus question why he decided to wear a jumper. In the centre of that particular Greenhouse was an extremely wide wooden table with plants held in trays on all sides of the interior, soaking in the sunshine. Remus walked toward the large group of students in black cloaks in the front of the room and tried to get a peek at the professor who was heard making small talk to the group of students there. He turned around just he heard the school's bell announce that it was nine o'clock sharp.

"All right, dears," he shuffled in the direction of the voice and managed to see a section of the teacher. "Even though the bell started, I will wait for the other first years to arrive." The tall boy in front of Remus moved left and Remus eagerly took his place. From his new position he was able to see the short professor that was his mother's favourite teacher and also head of house. Underneath the thick witch's hat tied underneath the professor's chin, short greying blonde hair poked itself out of the confines of the hat. Remus smiled without realising it, happy to see someone whom his mother adored. In that moment, when he was alone in a crowd of his classmates, he felt happy and oddly at peace; he felt closer to his mother in that instant. Professor Sprout continued to talk with a cluster of students around her; Remus surmised them to be first year Hufflepuff students.

She could have been his head of house, Remus thought. He wondered how she would react at knowing about his condition and wondered if she had any clue that not all of the students in her class were human. It was a sick, twisted sense of humour but it was one Remus learned to like. Instead, though, Professor Sprout was blissfully unaware of Remus and what his father called his 'circumstance'. From his safe distance away from the bubbly professor, Remus was able to overhear her talking about the process in which she selected plants to be in the Hufflepuff Common Room in response to a question posed by own of her own.

A few more first years entered the green house minutes later and in response Professor Sprout clapped her hands. In immediate response everyone quieted down and shuffled around the professor in a semi-circle to accommodate all of the students vying for a position to see the professor. James and Sirius stood close behind Remus, craning their necks to look at the teacher.

"I think a few of your classmates are missing," she announced clapping her hands together as she turned to look the class surrounding her. "But I congratulate all of you on finding Greenhouse One! We will meet here for classes unless extreme weather conditions disallow us to go venture outside, and in the event of that scenario we will meet somewhere in the ground floor or basement classrooms. My name is Professor Pomona Sprout and I will be your instructor in the art of Herbology."

"Look at her hair," Remus overheard Sirius comment to James.

"And I thought I had bad hair," James replied and Sirius muffled a laugh.

Remus shuffled in discomfort, trying to not overhear them. "You get away with it though, like in the way it looks like you don't worry about your looks and that it just happens naturally."

"That's because I don't worry about my looks and it does just happen naturally. My dad has the same thing happen to his hair; he calls it the 'Potters' Curse."

"Oh," Sirius breathed out. "Don't tell any girls that."

"I always ask the faculty to make a map of the school to hand out to students—especially to first years," Professor Sprout said merrily to the class, "but as you can see my suggestion never seems to be picked up by the other teachers. Oh! It looks like more of the class is coming in," Remus and his classmates turned around to the entrance of the greenhouse to watch a handful more of students walk in. Remus spotted shoulder length red hair and strained his neck to single Lily out in his vision walk in next to the other Gryffindor girl first year, Mary. Lily saw Sirius and James and narrowed her eyes, crinkling her nose as if she smelt something horrible. She jerked her head to Mary in the direction of the front of the class. Remus stepped aside to give the girls room to walk by and wondered what Lily's problem was with the boys, did she know them before the start of term and gotten on wrong with both James and Sirius? But that did not explain how James and Sirius were immune of Lily's ill feelings to them.

"Hello, hello, walk-ins!" the teacher announced the late group. "I am your instructor, Professor Sprout. Welcome to beginner Herbology, and as well as the first class in your Hogwarts career." Even though the announcement was spoken in a merry, carefree tone, it still sent chills down Remus's back and other student's. Professor Sprout stopped in her speech as the students murmured from shared anticipation.

"This woman is so typically Hufflepuff, it's a little sad," Sirius spoke to James much to Remus's discomfort.

"I was thinking the exact same thing! Like, it's no wondered how she became _their_ head of house. It is so obvious that she would go with them. I know she must be really smart or whatever with plants, but she looks like such a loser. She seems nice, but so _Hufflepuff_, you know?"

"So glad I wasn't sorted there," Sirius whispered back to James, unaware that they were in a shared class with the species they seemed to despise so much. Remus had enough and began to walk away, feeling sympathy towards Lily who seemed to hate James and Sirius. "Woah," Remus turned his head sharply as someone grabbed his arm. Sirius had grabbed his elbow, "Where are you going, man?"

"Uh," Remus flicked his eyes left and right as he thought of a lie. "I can't see. I thought I would get a closer view."

James and Sirius nodded in understanding, "Too bad there isn't much to see, right mate?" James joked and Sirius had to control the volume of his laughter. Remus faked a smile, which he thought was unconvincing but Sirius let go of his arm and allowed him to walk to the front of the crowd. He slid in the spaces between students and stopped behind a girl he recognised as Lily Evans. She brushed back her recognisable hair and made eye contact with Remus. Her emerald green eyes met his icy blue and Remus blushed as he glanced down at the dirt floor; embarrassed that she had caught him staring.

He hated that she was pretty because it made hard for him to stare anywhere else. He was entranced by her hair and by her similar disinterest in James and Sirius, and by her seemed unhappiness at being in sorted into Gryffindor last night at the Sorting feast. He knew nothing about her yet he thought he liked her; he chastised himself for this. His father had told him numerous times through the years that it was useless to fall in love with looks since they would fade, but he could not help it. He hated that he thought he liked her especially since he knew next to thing about her and what he did know was just speculation. And while his father had never advised him against falling in love, Remus knew it was useless for him to even allow himself to like someone. What was he thinking, deluding himself into believing he would be able to properly like someone? He was a sufferer of lycanthropy for Merlin's sake. He had never shared knowledge his romantic affections, not even with his most trusted companion, his father, but he knew that it was futile. Who would want to love a werewolf?

Remus shook his head as he thought over the truth, listening half-heartedly as Professor Sprout spoke to them about their agenda for that year. No one had ever broached the subject of love with him before, but he knew it was impossible outside of his parents loving him—which was all together a different kind of love, Remus thought with furrowed brows. He nodded his chin to his chest, yes; he would get over his little fascination with the girl Lily Evans. He hadn't even been here two full days and he was already holding a flame for a girl; he came to Hogwarts to learn, not to fall in love.

It made sense, he reasoned, he was in he middle of people who he had never met before and people who knew nothing about him. Statistically he was bound to like at least one girl. He forgave himself for his emotions but he told himself that he was allowed to feel them but not allowed to act upon them. It was ridiculous, he told himself, futile. It was one thing by thinking he liked this girl, it was a whole different thing to act upon it, he scoffed. He tightened his grip on the leather strap that was slung diagonally over his chest so that his knuckles turned white. She was only a girl, and it was only a crush.

"The subject that we know as Herbology is a history rich in ritual and detail," he forced to listen to Professor Sprout's words. "It was once known as Herbalism in medieval times and was even practiced by Muggles who saw the healing abilities of the subject. This of course was in the times where witches, wizards, and Muggles coexisted in overall peace," she added sorrowfully, as if she was personally sad about the split between the Muggle world and the magical one. It is also connected to potions, as many of you may know. What would potions be if we did not study and learn the importance of the ingredients as well as their healing or harmful abilities?" She paused at the rhetorical question she posed to the class. "Herbology, or Herbalism, is also essential to magical education because it is vital for all of us to know how to handle particularly dangerous species. In fact, that was how the knowledge of Herbology was passed on during times when the literacy rate was low; when needed to go on journeys, legends would be told for wizards to look out for some plant species that were known to be harmful. Because of this, fantastic legends were borne for some plants, but a basic understanding and knowledge of Herbology was born.

Because of the vital importance of this subject matter, we are going to start off this semester of the year with a project. Each one of you is going to be partnered up with another student and your group's responsibility is going to be to raise a garden successively for a multitude of plants." She paused, "but do not worry, nothing will be too dangerous for you all. That is for the years to come in the higher levels of Herbology," she added playfully. Remus shifted from one foot to the other nervously, unhappy to hear the knowledge that he would have to work with another person. He knew no one else besides his Gryffindor housemates and Andrew, but could not imagine himself approaching someone to be partners with someone else. How should he go about asking a stranger to be his partner for the entire semester, possibly with Remus missing classes because of his transformations? He leaned so that he could see Andrew, but he was talking confidently to one of his beloved housemates. Remus sighed and looked around for Peter, figuring he would be the next best option. Perhaps, after all, behind Peter's lost demeanour was a knowledgeable person on the magical properties of plants and a natural green thumb.

"Because I feel like it is a bit of a punishment," Remus stopped his search for the squat boy and looked back at the Professor holding her glove covered thumb and index finger apart less than an inch away from each other. "To force you to work with someone you have never met, I am going to place it upon myself to sort you into groups. Hopefully you will work with someone and learn more about your classmates; and this way, if things go sour, then you can blame me!" Professor Sprout clapped her hands together and beamed at the class. Remus actually sighed in relief at hearing her words. He laughed in his head at people like James, Sirius, and Andrew, people who were confident and friendly without any trouble or thought. Now they were all on the same playing field, with the teacher picking out everyone's partners.

"Everyone form a line down the greenhouse to make the process quicker," Professor Sprout shouted. This was easier said than done considering an extremely large working table blocked the route for most of the class. Remus tried to compose his face in a nonchalant fashion as he was forced by the mob behind him to literally rub shoulders with the particular shoulders of Lily Evans. He swore he felt a tingling sensation radiate from the spot on his right shoulder all the way to the tips of his fingers. "Now then," Professor Sprout stood near Remus's end of the line and looked down at her students standing all the way near the entrance. "Organise yourself in order of date of birth, as a nice little ice breaker." Remus widened his eyes, her command would force him to interact and talk with complete and total strangers. "I merely jest," Remus returned his eyes to their normal size at Sprout's joke as his classmates laughed in shared relief. "Starting with you," she tapped the shoulder of the first year standing next to her, "starting with—"

"Dean Ciero," the boy answered.

"Yes, starting with Mr Ciero, I will pick out everyone's partner down the row." Remus watched over his left shoulder at Lily, not admitting to himself that he should have done something to ensure that he stood on Lily's left instead of allowing Mary to take that spot as he tried to scramble in a position in line. He looked over the way Professor Sprout was tapping out partners and he determined that the boy to his right would be placed as his own. Remus tried to not make it apparent as he looked over the all right looking boy. He was almost positive that the Hufflepuff first year had great qualities; the only problem the boy could not resolve was that he was not a first year Gryffindor named Lily Evans.

What was he doing? Had he not just been chastising himself for the rashness and total improbability of him having an actual crush on Lily Evans? Had he not just rationed it out that of course he was going to have a crush on at least one girl at school merely because he had never been in the presence of so many girls before? Had he not just been granted a chance in a lifetime by being able to attend school, and he was really going to risk it on the second day of term, the first day of classes, on a crush? Because that is all it was, he told himself. It was only a crush because he hadn't been exposed to a lot of pretty girls like Lily before. He was a waste, he told himself, a waste that was acting like a lovesick puppy. Yes, he decided, it was better for him not to have the option of working with Miss Evans. Who was he anyway, using her first name like he knew her? He was deluding himself that was all. Remus forced himself to fix his mouth into a semblance of a smile as his mother's favourite professor made her way to his area in the line and turned to introduce himself to the Hufflepuff student next to him when Professor Sprout tapped his left shoulder with the right shoulder of the person standing to his left. He quickly jerked his head in the direction and blanched when his desire and fears were made a reality as he looked into the face of Lily Evans—Miss Evans.

"Well, what are you two waiting for, introductions are in order," Remus gladly looked away from Lily Evans to the Professor. The ruddy professor smiled widely to them both before moving on to pair the Hufflepuff boy to Remus's right.

"Uh," Lily started, extending her right hand in Remus's direction. "I'm Lily Evans. We met last night at the Gryffindor table."

"Yes, yes, I remember," Remus wiped his sweaty palm on the fabric of his trousers before shaking her hand. "Shall we begin then? How are you at Herbology?"

"Your name?" Remus looked up from the ground at Lily, trying hard not to look at her eyes and instead focused on the area behind her right shoulder.

"Excuse me?" he questioned as the others around them talked with their partners.

"Your name. I remember you from last night; you're the one that shared the chocolate. But I don't remember your name."

"Oh, yes, right," Remus cursed his nervousness that wasn't caused by an anticipation for classes. He had learnt to deal with that anticipation, but never had he experienced the sort of nervousness that stemmed from a girl. "My name is Remus Lupin."

"I am glad everyone has this chance to know one another." Everyone quieted as Professor Sprout began to speak again. "I am not going to pass out the list of ingredients you will have to be responsible for because this year Professor Slughorn from potions is teaming up with me. In all of your next potion's class you shall all receive a copy of the list of plants so you can all begin research on how to properly care of each plant's individual needs. Next class each group shall receive their growing kits and seeds. You all will have access to your plants, which will be stored in this greenhouse, during school hours and before curfew. This project shall run until Christmas Break, but don't take that as me trying to scare you. I will meet multiple times with each group and help anyone with any sort of problems that could arise." Remus sucked in a nervous breath; he made a mental note to write his mother about the list of plants in case she held any advice in to proceed with the important seeming project.

"As for now, since we have plenty of time remaining in this class, I would like you give you all a general tour of the Greenhouses and the facilities that you will work in for at least the next four years."


	13. Scene Thirteen

**Scene Thirteen**

The people at the end of the class near the entrance now held the advantage, as they were the first ones out of the greenhouse. Remus turned and walked in single file line fashion and tried not to think about how Miss Evans was walking behind him in the same manner.

"This particular greenhouse is used primarily for first year Herbology and beginning courses in second year Herbology classes," Professor Sprout began the tour as everyone stood outside in the September sun around her. "There are no prerequisites for entrance and can be used for as a safe storage area for upper level projects as long as they pose no risk to any possible passer-by.

"Now if you look to your right," Professor Sprout stopped talking as she left everyone turn to face the parallel greenhouse with a sign that read 'Greenhouse Two' pinned to the ground by the entrance. Greenhouse Two had the identical exterior of the greenhouse in which they presently stood outside of except a thick lock was placed over the door. "This greenhouse is reserved for second years and some third year courses that require a foundation of knowledge of Herbology for entrance.

Down this pathway are the locations for Greenhouses Three through Seven. These are strictly forbidden, including the second greenhouse, for first year entrance even if the door is open. This is out of safety concerns for these are holding cells for dangerous plants to be studied that are possibly fatal if provoked or dealt with improperly. These are also used for personal study area for N.E.W.T. levelled students for a yearlong project in which they have to study a particular plant." Professor Sprout paused with a grin plastered to her face, as if this was juicy gossip that she shouldn't have been telling the student. Remus noted the impeccably white teeth even with his distance between himself and the teacher in his disinterest of higher level Herbology. He was sure he would be interested in it once he was qualified to even enter the greenhouses, but for now, he was only concern for his sweat that had begun to appear on his skin because of their time outside. His back had also begun to hurt because of him having to carry his school bag for so long.

"Next I am going to lead you across the school yard near the lake. Please stay close and try not to get lost in the school yard unsupervised," Professor Sprout shouted as she led the group of first-years out of the fenced-in Herbology greenhouses and further down the slope. He knew he should have been grateful for having some sort of tour around the school, but he would have preferred if it were directions to his transfiguration class that he was scheduled to go to after Herbology with the Ravenclaw students. He was beginning to feel the full one hour and forty-five minutes of class time as he trekked across the school's garden with his other Herbology classmates. He hoped that his next class would be on the first floor or ground floor of Hogwarts.

Somewhere in front of the group he could hear Sirius's laugh, accompanied by James's own. It seemed too easy for them, Remus thought. How could it be that life was made out easier for different people?  
Remus used to think he was on the far end of the spectrum where life was the absolute worst for some people; but this summer he mapped out that he was actually closer to the opposite end of the spectrum where life was the absolute best for some people—somewhere close to Sirius and James. While he was placed on the far end of the spectrum that he had previously thought, Remus still couldn't manage the easy-going, confident nature of his two housemates. Was it all an act? It couldn't be.  
Remus looked up from the trail and gasped, feigning to cough to cover his shock. Of course she would, he thought. Of course the Herbology professor would give them a tour of this particular tree specimen that had been transported and successfully planted to the grounds of Hogwarts during the summer. Remus slowed his pace to let the others behind him get in front of him. The Whomping Willow's trunk was large in diameter and had its limbs sticking vertical in the air, swaying every so slightly. It almost looked peaceful to Remus but he knew it was only because it was a nice day outside that caused the usually violent tree to be the appearance of content.

"We have the ultimate privilege this year of having Headmaster Dumbledore acquire this precious plant. It is known more commonly as The Whomping Willow and is deciduous plant, meaning that it will lose its leaves this winter." Remus looked at the sky, behind him at the castle, to the strange little hut stationed near the forest, to the lake, anywhere but that damned tree. "I wanted to personally show you this tree to warn you of its aggressive personality." Remus shook his head when he heard someone scoff her words; ever since he found out that the Whomping Willow was going to hide the passageway from the school to the location of his transformations, he had scoured books learning everything he could on the tree.

"I feel it necessary for you all to see first hand the true aggression that this plant exerts, so everyone please take a step back." James and Sirius were the only ones who stayed eagerly in place while everyone else, even Remus who stood at the back, moved a few feet back. Professor Sprout enchanted a stick to prod the tree in several places around its trunk. As soon as the tip of the branch touched the heavy bark the tree stopped its graceful swaying and froze. Before the branch could touch the plant again for the third time, the Whomping Willow slapped it with one of its tiniest branches and slammed it to the bare dirt ground away from the tree. The group gasped and one girl emitted a shriek from the shock of the sudden movement. Like a cat's paw striking a mouse dead, the tree's branch made sure that whatever had disturbed it was killed.

"As you can see, this is only a small portion of its strength." Professor Sprout enchanted the stick slowly away, a mass of tiny splinters floated near the class. "Imagine what would happen if you accidently touched it," Professor Sprout paused, as if a space of silence would make her class fully comprehend the dangerous quality of the tree. But Remus knew that one person would get hurt by it; it was just statistics. One person out of this huge school would somehow get hurt, and Remus was to blame. Because of his chance to be here insane precautions had to be put in place, and he hated the ultimate fuss that came unasked, naturally to his unnatural state of humanity. He would have been more inclined if he transported home once every month to follow through his and his family's routine around the full moon. He hadn't asked why he had to remain at school around the other children, he had been too afraid in knowing the truth.

Suddenly he wished he hadn't worn his jumper. His mind could only focus on the immense heat he was suffering from so that he couldn't even concentrate on what Professor Sprout was saying about the Whomping Willow. He wished to leave, that was his only desire. He snuck a look behind his shoulder and cursed the huge distance between himself and the school. He would do anything to take himself away from the tree. It felt unnatural, this one tree was painstakingly placed here just for him. He wasn't worth it, and he did not understand why everyone put in a lot of work just on his behalf.

He hated everyone looking at his tree, feeling as if he was bare. It was like they were seeing Remus in exactly thirteen days when they looked at the tree. It was unfair; having complete strangers look at something he wished didn't exist. It was different for them, when they looked at the tree they only saw a tree, albeit an extremely mean one. But when Remus looked at it, it was part of his lifeline and a reminder of how much of a freak he was because of one wolf's scratch down his back. And when his class saw that, even if they didn't yet understand, they were seeing him in his weakest of forms.

Remus was afraid to take off his cloak despite the extreme inner heat he suffered from, not wanting to appear different from his classmates clad in uniform black cloaks. He didn't want to be special; it was the worst feeling in the world knowing he was the only werewolf to walk the halls of Hogwarts, even as limited as to the fraction of the castle he had walked and explored compared to the entire stone structure. He wished people didn't have to worry about him and how his Head of House would have to know about his secret when Professor McGonagall wouldn't have to care about her other Gryffindor students the same way as she did about him. He was an oddity. A freak.

He shouldn't be thinking like this, it only led to bad things. He knew this yet he couldn't stop his mind from its rotating mantra all concerning his lycanthropy. He tried to stop but his damn cloak made it impossible, how could no one else be suffering from such abnormal heat? He started to breath through his mouth in hopes to get more oxygen to cool his body, but the sweat still clung to the inner fabric of his clothes. He looked to the ground, anywhere from the tree. It's presence was reminding himself of his uncontrollable defect, taunting him with a reflection he tried to ignore about himself.

Remus woke from his reverie as students pushed past him as they walked away from the tree and back up to the castle. He gripped the strap of his leather bag with both of his hands and turned around, relieved at having the chance to leave. He walked slowly with his hands now in his trouser pockets and looked to the ground, not caring that he had slunken back into the end of the group. He jerked his head up when he felt a strong hand at his back.

"Whatcha doin', mate?" Sirius asked him merrily, Completely unaware of the state of Remus's troubled mind.

"Nothing," Remus murmured, trying to keep his insanity to himself.

"This project we have to do for class is insanely intense," James joined the conversation.

Remus didn't want to talk but forced himself anyway, hoping that if he pretended to be okay then he would magically become okay. "Yeah, I know," he agreed with James. "Sounds like a lot of work—who is your partner?" James smiled broadly and threw his arm around Sirius in a fashion that mirrored people knowing each other for years.

"We were at the end of the stupid line we had to form but because of it we were able to work together," Sirius explained. "Who did you have to get stuck with?"

"I was partnered up with that girl with the red hair, you know, the Gryffindor first-year," Remus didn't know why he was pretending not knowing her name, but he couldn't control the lie that effortlessly poured out of his mouth. He should have just told the truth of knowing her name, but it was too late now. If he corrected himself then it would only look strange.

It took James to recall Lily Evans, "Oh yeah, I know her. A bit strange it seems like," he said off handily.

"Look at who she hangs out with, that guy is a complete freak," Sirius said quietly so that only the three of them could hear. "I don't know his family, but I know the likes of him." Remus couldn't begin to dream to know who they were referring to, but he refrained from asking because he thought it would break the spell of James and Sirius being close to him.

"I don't know, she seems nice," Remus countered slowly when no one else spoke after Sirius's comment about the person whom Lily spent her time with.

"That's right, you weren't there in the train with us," James announced it in like that was an explanation of Remus's impression on Lily. "Me and Sirius ended up sitting with her and this other guy in the compartment since we couldn't find another space." Sirius nodded in James's retelling of the story as the group followed Professor Sprout's leading to what looked like the front of the castle.

"So, we tried to be nice since we would have to sit with them for the entire trip, right?" James asked rhetorically.

"Well, we could have found another compartment," Sirius interjected.

"Yes, we could have, but shut up," James unwrapped his arm from around Sirius's neck and slapped him on the shoulder. Sirius feigned pain but James continued in on his story. "But the guy she was with was being a complete jerk. He had her wanting to believe that she should be in Slytherin," he said the house name like it was painful for his mouth to have to say it. "So I decide to ask them both why they liked the house when it produced the most dark wizards, and that guy gave me a smart ass answer. So I told them, no, Gryffindor was the place to be. But he continued in being a complete ass."

"You should have seen this guy," Sirius moved so that Remus was in the middle. "He had this weird greasy black hair and these weird clothes on underneath his robes. It was a scream just looking at him."

"Snivellous is my new name for him," James told Remus.

Remus furrowed his brows, caught in on the story of about the Slytherin close to Lily. This explains her outward disinterest in being a Gryffindor and her actions at the Gryffindor table last night where she didn't pay attention to anything else except for this Slytherin boy who must have been standing at the end of the first-years' line. "What is the lad's name?" Remus questioned, genuinely wanting to know about the boy connected with Lily.

"Severus Snape, but I shall call him Slimey Snivellous because of his gross hair," Sirius announced, pushing out his chest. The group stopped outside of the castle's entrance and Remus waited for further instruction from the professor.

"Since today was a light day, we have about ten minutes left until the end of class. This will rarely happen once we begin working next class period onward, but everyone is dismissed early. Come to me if you need any instructions on how to get to your next class," she called out merrily as a few students went inside.

Sirius, Remus, and James remained in their subgroup. "What class do we have next?" Sirius asked, screwing his eyes to the sky.


	14. Scene Fourteen

**Scene Fourteen**

"Transfiguration, I believe," Remus said out loud but more to himself as he grabbed the neatly folded timetable from his bag. He unfolded the letter and rechecked his Wednesday classes. "Yes, Transfiguration begins next with the Slytherins."

"Sounds good, we can have a look over at the crop of the next batch of evil witches and wizards," Sirius spoke gleefully. "Let's get a move on, yeah? Slimey Snivellous might had showered last night, and we wouldn't want to miss those results," he added mischievously. "And this time James is not allowed to drag us through flooded hallways," he received another slap from James. Remus folded his letter and placed it in his cloak pocket. He walked and grabbed the school's front door before it could close and held it open for James and Sirius to pass.

"Hold up," Sirius bent down and grabbed a piece of parchment from the ground. "You dropped this, Remus," Remus took the piece of paper from Sirius's hand with his eyes screwed in confusion. "Now, where do we go for class?"

"That's an excellent question," James replied as he folded his arms over his chest and looked around the foyer of the castle. "We know it's not this way," he murmured to himself.

Remus walked away from James and Sirius and unfolded the piece of parchment. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the neat, fine script that was unlike his father's own penmanship. Before beginning, Remus looked up and made sure that James and Sirius were still in their own worlds.

_Dear Mr Remus Lupin,_

_I would like to congratulate you on your sorting into the Gryffindor house. As the newest member of our house, I request a meeting with you in my personal office located on the ground floor on the third of September at 15.00. Please do not be late. Congratulations once more on becoming part of the Gryffindor legacy._

_ Minerva McGonagall_

_ Head of the Gryffindor House_

_ Deputy Headmistress_

Remus gulped and quickly stuffed the letter into the inner pocket in his bag, hoping that no one saw. He appreciated the vagueness of the letter, so he did not worry if Sirius happened to see bits of the letter, but that barely soothed his nerves. He hated strangers knowing about his condition, he hated people knowing about it in general. It was the one thing he could never escape, even on the best of days. But through the carefully planned vague phrasing of the letter, Remus understood the true meaning of the private meeting with Deputy Headmistress McGonagall. His father had told him that his head of house would have to be alerted on his condition, but he wished it wouldn't have to be so soon. There were only thirteen days until his next transformation, could the woman have held off until his first few days of classes? Then he could feign the illusion of being a regular student instead of the many reminders just in the morning of the present day of being something else.

"Haven't we got transfiguration next?" he heard a sweet voice talk to him and he looked in the direction of it. "Have you got any idea where that might be?"

He nodded dumbly at Lily Evans.

She waited for an answer, "Where might it be then? I was late for Herbology and I would hate to be late for our next class."

James and Sirius saw Remus talking to Lily, or rather Lily talking with Remus, and they came over to their one-sided discussion. "Have we figured out where to begin our search?" James asked, giving a weird look over of Lily. Mary walked behind Lily and Peter stumbled over to join the group.

"Remus says he knows where to go," Lily spoke to James's question but looked at Remus. She had said his name, and he didn't know why but it made him forget about Professor McGonagall knowing about his condition.

"That's brilliant, mate. You seem to know where everything is," Sirius commented. "Where should we go?" Everyone in the huddled group looked at him and Remus blushed from the intense stares.

"Right, er," Remus looked up and down the foyer of the entrance. "I believe it might be somewhere in the ground floor, so it shouldn't be far."

"It can't be on the right because that is where we were this morning," Mary spoke for the first time, revealing a quiet Irish cadence. Sirius folded his arms over his chest and looked at Mary incredulously. "We were having difficulty trying to find the greenhouses this morning," she added as a form of evidence to her claim.

"All right then, to the left it is then," James said, clapping his hands in imitation of Professor Sprout. "Let's try to find this place!" James began walking forward ahead of everyone else and Remus shuffled behind him next to Peter.

"You all right?" he asked the boy. Peter turned his head and shook his head in a yes, offering Remus a sad smile. Remus snuck a glance to his left and watched Lily whisper with the girl Mary, wondering briefly what they were talking about. He hoped against hope that he was right in telling the others where the transfiguration classroom was, feeling like a fraud for being thought of as a person knowledgeable in the geography of the castle. It had been pure luck so far, with his mother telling him about the Hufflepuff's head of house always favouring the greenhouses, and now with his own head of house telling him where her office was located. He had only hoped that his guess that her office would be near the classroom was the right one; otherwise he had no idea where to look in the castle. He caught some words between Sirius and James's conversation, James sharing emphatically about his excitement to be going to what he predicted would be his favourite class. Sirius said nothing related to the topic of transfiguration, but mused on what time the midday meal would be served.

The school bells rang minutes after the beginning of their exploration of the ground floor and within a minute the corridors were flooded with older students. Remus, in fear of being separated from the pack, walked closely with Peter. He was on the look out for any signs of a transfiguration classroom, but all the ones they had passed looked the same. Tall wooden doors with numbers on the front of it were the only differentiating notes between each one. The din in the corridor was so much so that Remus could not hear what Lily shouted at Mary, touching the brunette girl's arm before running away in front to a classroom on the left that had a cluster of students in front of the door. Lily ran confidently in the middle of the group of what Remus guessed to be first years and began talking animatedly with a scrawny boy with long black, slightly greasy looking hair. This must have been the boy for whom Lily was looking for yesterday night during the Sorting, and the one James and Sirius were talking about from their meeting on the train.

Severus smiled shyly at Lily and said something funny, which she laughed loudly at. Before Remus could get close enough to hear their conversation, the door to the classroom opened and there was a wait to get in the classroom as all of the Slytherin and Gryffindor students tried to get in first. With two columns of tables for two people, the Slytherins filled in the front desks. Remus found his way to an empty table on the third row and appreciated the moment of when he was able to sit without moving. Peter scraped the wooden chair next to Remus and sat down next to him while James and Sirius sat at the table behind Remus. Lily, who was sitting on the right front row table with Severus, happened to look back over her shoulder and catch Remus's eye and nodded to him, smiling for a moment before turning back to Severus.

"How could a Gryffindor be friends with a Slytherin? Especially a Slytherin as stupid looking as him?" Sirius wondered aloud to James, and Remus felt no guilt in eavesdropping. Lily and Snape were the only table with two different house members sitting together.

"I haven't got the slightest of ideas. Should we ask her and Snivellus?" James replied smoothly.

What could Severus have done to both James and Sirius to cause this much delight in tormenting him, Remus thought. Lily Evans seemed nice enough and didn't seem like the kind of person to hang around bad influences, but perhaps Remus was wrong. He had only known her for two days and hardly knew anything about her. James and Sirius talked and acted like they had known Lily and Severus for a while by the easy way in which they both talked negatively about Severus. And why single out Severus? Remus had noticed that Sirius and James had evaded Lily in their insults about the boy. What made him special enough for their ridicule and not her?

Without any sign of the professor, Sirius Black called out to Severus.

"Hey, Slimey Snivellus!" all heads turned to Sirius and James and the pair smiled form the attention. "You seem to be in some assistance," James continued. From his direct gaze at Severus, some heads turned to look at the Slytherin boy in the front of the class whose cheeks were red. "When you bathe, if you do, you need to lather your hair with soap. After which you should rinse your hair and repeat for desired results."

"Unless you like looking like a slimy get," Sirius added after James's speech. A few of the brave Gryffindor students laughed, but Remus had his mouth glued to his mouth. Lily grabbed Severus's arm and forced him to look away from the pair of troublemakers. The bell rang and there was still no sign of Professor McGonagall. Remus set out his inkwell and placed a two sharpened quills beside his bounded parchment notepad on his desk in preparation of class. He retrieved his beginner's transfiguration book from his bag and rested it on his aching knees. This has been his father's favourite class, and he eagerly wanted to see what his father loved so much about the art. More time passed yet the transfiguration professor was nowhere to be seen, which was hypocritical for her telling Remus to be on time to their scheduled meeting set for tomorrow afternoon. Remus scratched the date on his parchment to pass the time and looked around at the assembled students.

"It's a cat, do you see it?" Remus turned his head in the direction of the voice from the back of the class. Sure enough he saw a tabby cat walk from the open door and down the aisle between the two rows. He felt poor for the cat, thinking it to be someone's lost housecat. He thought of his own cat back home and wished that he could have brought the old pet for something familiar.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," Sirius sang to the cat as he left his seat and followed the cat, trying to catch it. "C'mom, pussycat," the students laughed when Sirius's voice grew sing-songy in trying to coax the lost cat. The cat continued to walk very leisurely with its head held high. Sirius jumped around to be in front of the cat and he crouched down, walking backwards, forcing the cat to look at him. "C'mon, cat, all I want to do is hold you." The cat blinked its green eyes at Sirius and stopped next to Severus and Lily's desk. Sirius smiled, thinking that the cat would allow him to hold it, but when Sirius took a step forward to grab it, the cat walked behind Lily and Severus's chairs. "Oh, come on," Sirius growled, "You damn fucking bitch cat," Sirius ran after the cat. Right as he ran up to it and was about to grab hold of the cat's waist, a strange thing occurred. In a matter of seconds, where a cat stood now stood Professor McGonagall. Many students, Remus included, gasped and Lily had even scooted back in her chair as a result of the rapid transformation.

Sirius stood frozen next to Severus's side of the desk, his mouth hung open in obvious confusion. Severus held his smirk high, making it easy for Remus to see it. Sirius took a step back and looked Professor McGonagall up and down, as if seeing if she was really there.

"Mr Black, I would wish that members of my own house would refrain from using such obscene language," Professor McGonagall spoke sternly, quieting the class instantly. "This is a classroom," she continued to speak to Sirius but she looked around the entire class, "and proper respect should be given its due. Now sit down," Sirius looked the professor over again before cracking a smile and he hurried to his desk.

"How fucking cool was that?" Remus heard Sirius whisper to James.

"Pretty cool," he heard James agree.

Remus reopened his inkwell and positioned his quill tip close to the black liquid, posed for prime note taking. "As you have all witnessed, I have learned the skill of transforming myself from an animal back into my human form." Professor McGonagall walked up the two steps that platformed her desk from the ground where the students' desk were. "Does anyone know the name for this process?" Remus nodded his head, saying the word "animagus" in his head, but he didn't raise his hand to answer her question. "The correct term is animagus," Professor McGonagall said, mirroring Remus's thoughts. "It is one of the highest form of transfiguration and to become an animagus, one must register with the Ministry of Magic. There have only been seven registered animagi in Britain in this century, myself included." Professor McGonagall stopped to take a pause, letting the evidence of her superior transfiguration skills overwhelm the students' minds.

"Knowing this now, can anyone tell me the difference between charms and transfiguration?" Remus busily scratched the question and answer on his parchment, and when he looked up only one hand was raised.

Professor McGonagall motioned to the student and Lily Evans stood at her desk, "If you will ma'am, the difference between charms and transfiguration is that when transfiguring an object, one I actually changing the inherent properties of that particular object. Changing the forms and appearance of an object. But with charms, then one is only causing something to happen to that object, like, making it do something that it usually wouldn't."

"Very nice, Miss-"

"Lily Evans," Professor McGonagall nodded.

"Very nice Miss Evans, you have earned two points for Gryffindor. Now, can you elaborate what you meant by saying that in charms you are causing an object to 'do something it usually wouldn't' do?"

"Like, making it float or something," Lily Evans answered less confidently than before, rubbing her arm with one hand as she stood to the professor.

"That will do Miss Evans, one more point to Gryffindor." Lily thanked her and sat down, beaming as she pushed back strands of red hair from her face. Professor Mcgonagall, with a flick of her long, slender wand, made a large chalkboard appear next to her. "Please put away your wands, as we will focus on theory and the magical foundations of transfiguration for the time being," there was a rustling around the room and students brought out their note taking supplied and put away their wands. Professor McGonagall looked straight t him, the only student who was fully prepared for class. He squirmed under her stare and broke the eye gazing by yielding to her and looking at his notes. She knew about him and that made him self-conscious to even speak out loud. Only a few people in his life knew about his condition, but now he was having to suffer from three outsiders knowing: Headmaster Dumbledore, Nurse Pompfrey, and Professor McGonagall. It was different with the first two because he didn't have to see them nearly every day, but with his actual teacher, it was unbearable. With every glance at him, she suddenly knew his greatest insecurity and she was a virtual stranger. Still looking at his desktop, he cleared his throat and waited until he heard her voice address the class when he dared looked up. She began to lecture by telling them all the definition of transfiguration, reiterating what Remus all ready knew and what Lily had told the class, using correct terminology that then had to be defined. Peter obediently copied down everything that appeared on the chalkboard by a floating piece of chalk and soon complained quietly to Remus of his hand hurting. Remus stole a glance and nodded sympathetically, but he had written more than the boy and still he suffered from no hand or wrist cramps. Through his observations, Lily Evans seemed to be the only other student who wrote as diligently and as much as Remus. He tried to ignore the thought and told himself that he had no idea what she was writing, and could have been writing a letter or a note to her friend Severus. James and Sirius, he knew, were playing a form of hangman where the killed man was animated if someone lost. He tried to ignore their snickering, wanting only to hear the lecture from Professor McGonagall.

He felt the start of a hollow pain in his stomach and tried to push through it while he wrote about the limitations of transfiguration. A few minutes growled and he looked up embarrassed, but if Peter heard it then he showed no reaction. During a pause in Professor McGonagall's speech, Remus looked at his watch to find that the time was almost noon. According to his schedule, the class was scheduled to end at half twelve and then they would have an hour and thirty minutes for lunch before going to their first Defence Against the Dark Art's class scheduled to begin at two o'clock. Transfiguration, he learned early on in the class's lecture, was a lot more difficult than he previously thought. Mixed with the precise notes McGonagall was giving them and her stern, hard nature, Remus wondered what James saw in it since it seemed paradoxical to his nature.

"Your homework due next class period is to define the seven branches of transfiguration," several members of the class groaned at the thought of work but Professor McGonagall continued. "Also, due this time next week is a one foot essay explaining the seven branches of transfiguration. I am telling you in advance so that you have a chance to study further when you are defining the branches," Sirius laughed at that. The school bells rang, signalling half past twelve. One student made a motion to stand and leave, but McGonagall shot them down to sitting back down with a stern look. "You know your assignments, if you have any questions please stay after," she stated firmly. "I accept no late work. You are all dismissed," most of the class cleared their things off the desk and left as soon as they could, glad for the break from such a hard first class. Remus couldn't help but notice Lily and Severus leave together for the Great Hall. He packed away his things and stood, waiting for Peter. He was slightly shocked when he saw Sirius and James quietly waiting for them by the door, knowing full well that they weren't obligated to include Remus and Peter.

"Merlin, she is so cool!" Sirius nearly shouted in the corridor, causing many people to stare in their direction. He seemed to have forgotten how the Professor in question had disciplined him at the beginning of class. "She turned into a cat. She can turn into an animal and turn back," clearly there were more important things to be discussed. They walked side by side as they all made their way into the Great Hall and over to the Gryffindor table. Nearly half of the students were in the dinging hall, making Remus ponder if there were, in essence, different lunch waves as people's lunch breaks began at different times. The group of boys down in the middle of the table and Remus looked up and down the table for any sign of Lily and Mary, but both were absent.

"It would be really cool to become an animagus," James noted after Sirius's excited ramblings about the Professor. "I wonder what animal I would turn into though, I hope it wouldn't be anything stupid."

"Woah," Sirius stopped shuffling food onto his plate and looked up and James who sat across from him, next to Remus. "Are you telling me that you can't decide what animal you want to become?"

James shrugged his shoulders, "Not that I know a lot about it, but from what I have heard, you become the animal that 'most resembles your spirit,'" he used air quotations and deepened his voice. "Or something stupid like that. But Like I said, I could be totally wrong."

Sirius looked at James who had started to eat, he titled his head as he considered James's knowledge before shrugging and poured more mashed potatoes onto his golden plate. "Whatever, it would still be cool."

Remus looked only at his plate, uncomfortable with them thinking that turning into an animal was cool or good in anyway. He knew that animagi were completely different that lycans, but the two still shared common threads. He told himself to stop being so sensitive and began eating, appeasing his famished state. Half an hour into their lunch break, the boys had stuffed themselves and conversation arose around the table as they played the "Get to Know You" game with Remus. James's current topic concerned with where he grew up.

"You've got a mix of an accent," Sirius commented as if he was a specialised professional on the different accents of the British Isles.

"Well my father is from Scotland, and I grew up with his strong Scottish accent. My mother is from the southwest of England," Remus replied softly, hyper-aware of his speech.

"Yes, but where do you live?" James pestered.

Remus placed his knife and fork on the empty plate, "We live in the county Yorkshire, a bit away from the town." He wondered how much was safe to tell them versus how much James and Sirius wanted to know.

"That makes sense since you live in a magical family. What's your house like?"

Remus had two options. He could have lied and told them about their former house located more south of England. That house was certainly much grander than his current home, but his family had sold it when he was six as a form to pay for possible cures from lycanthropy. Remus bit his bottom lip and chose to tell the truth. "Well," he began, "it's in the woods, my father placed muggle warding charms around it. It's three levels and has a light green wooden exterior." The more Remus talked the more he could imagine the house in his mind and visualise that he was in it. "The kitchen and living room are on the ground floor, and the reading room and bedrooms are on the first floor. But there is an attic, which one can enter through my room. It looks out the front of the house so you can see my mother's garden and the pathway."

Sirius tilted his head again, thinking. "And you say you actually use this reading room?" Remus nodded. "And you say you aren't a Ravenclaw?"

"It's true, I saw him sorted myself," James said laughing. Remus took a swig of tea from his goblet in lie of not having to respond.

"Look, my family has a library too, but I couldn't even tell you how to get to it," Sirius laughed along with James.

James took a bite of his third helping of chicken, "Say, Remus, how did you know where everything was this morning?"

Remus looked up from his plate, "My mother told me about the greenhouses."

"But what about the transfiguration classroom?"

Remus bit his lip and looked back down at his plate, he tried to formulate a lie in his mind. "When I was in the washroom this morning," he said, slowly looking back at James. "I overheard a few upper classmates talking about it." Remus paused, grabbing hold of his goblet, "I don't know why they were walking about it on the ground floor," he shrugged at Sirius and Peter, "but it was lucky that I remembered it."

"That is strange," Sirius said. Remus's hand froze as the goblet touched his bottom lip, "that anyone would be talking about classes before they have to take them. Jeez, I mean, really. Did they have nothing else to discuss?"

"Lucky for us though that Remus was eavesdropping," Remus sputtered his drink when James patted him on the shoulder.

"Yes, yes," Remus repeating, wiping tea from his mouth where he had coughed it up.

"Hey Chocolate Boy," Sirius put his schedule on top of the table, "You wouldn't know where our Defense Against the Dark Arts class would be, would you?" Remus shook his head no. "Would it really be so difficult to give us a map?" Sirius sighed. "We have it with the Ravenclaws, anything is better than with Slytherins." James nodded silently in agreement but Remus wondered what caused the massive enmity between the two houses. To be fair, he hadn't met a Slytherin, so it could have been factual that most Slytherins were downright mean, but he doubted it.


End file.
